THE  MAKING     I 
li  OF  THE  •tBLE 


S  AM  U  E  I%«fc^S#Sg,*< 


.^^s^^^ 


Sr<  tinr       '  V   l^i'^ 


THE    MAKING 

OF 

THE  BIBLE 


SAMUEL  M.  VERNON 


MAY  24  INI 


THE  ABINGDON  PRESS 
NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI 


Copyright,  1916,  by 
SAMUEL  M.  VERNON 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGB 

I.     The  World  Without  a  Bible  . .       5 
11.     A  Bible  Becomes  Necessary.  .     21 

III.  Necessary    Limitations    to    a 

Revelation 33 

IV.  The  Making  of  the  Canon.  ...     49 

The  Old  Testament 

V.     The    Making    of    the    Canon 

(Continued) 61 

The  New  Testament 

VI.     The  New  Testament  Becoming 

Holy  Scripture 73 

VII.     The  Apocrypha 97 

VIII.     The  Present  Standing  of  the 

Bible Ill 

IX.     The    Bible    the  Creature    of 

Experience 124 

X.     The   Bible   Tested  by  Experi- 
ence     139 

XI.     The  Bible  Amenable  to  Criti- 
cism     154 

XII.    The  Limitations  of  Criticism.  162 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  WORLD  WITHOUT  A  BIBLE 

The  Bible  was  not  given  to  man  at  the 
beginning  of  his  career.  Only  after  the 
lapse  of  many  centuries  did  it  appear,  as 
product  and  instrument  of  the  growing  life 
of  the  race.  When  it  did  come,  it  was  not 
one  sudden  burst  of  light,  but  it  crept  in 
softly,  little  by  little,  as  the  mind  of  man 
slowly  readjusted  itseK  to  its  changing  con- 
ditions and  new  method  of  receiving  divine 
revelations.  It  was  one  of  the  later  meth- 
ods chosen  by  God  for  manifesting  himself 
to  men.  That  religion  of  the  highest  order 
and  ethical  conduct  of  the  finest  quality 
were  possible  without  the  Bible  was  proven 
by  the  unanswerable  argument  that  they 
existed  and  flourished  through  long  periods 
and  among  different  nations  before  there 
was  a  Bible.  That  a  Bible  was  not  given 
is  suflScient  evidence  that  it  was  not  neces- 
sary to  the  well-being  and  religious  devel- 
opment of  the  race  in  the  beginning;  God 
had  other  and  adequate  methods. 

5 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

If  it  had  been  best  for  man,  God  could 
have  given  him  a  written  revelation  at  the 
first,  a  perfect  guidebook  for  his  conduct 
which  he  could  not  misunderstand.  That 
he  did  not  do  it  is  proof  that  he  considered 
another  form  of  revelation  more  effective 
and  better  for  man's  religious  development. 
The  appeal  must  be  more  direct,  and  the 
personal  contact  closer  and  more  manifest 
than  would  have  been  possible  in  a  written 
revelation.  Man's  nature  was  untrained 
and  undeveloped,  and  a  powerful  direct 
appeal  was  necessary  to  awaken  a  desire 
for  the  knowledge  of  God  and  for  com- 
munion with  him. 

If  it  is  objected  that  writing  was  not  in 
use  at  first,  and,  therefore,  a  written  reve- 
lation was  impossible,  it  may  be  answered 
that  this  is  pure  assumption.  We  do  not 
know  but  that  mth  the  gift  or  develop- 
ment of  language  there  was  included  a 
knowledge  or  development  of  the  art  of 
reading  and  writing.  If  that  gift  was  not 
included  in  man's  outfit  for  life,  it  could 
have  been,  and  certainly  would  have  been, 
if  it  had  been  necessary  to  his  proper  in- 
struction in  religious  knowledge  and  duties. 

6 


THE  WORLD  WITHOUT  A  BIBLE 

Such  a  gift  would  have  been  no  more 
miraculous  than  were  the  special  direct 
revelations  that  were  necessary  from  time 
to  time  because  of  the  absence  of  a  written 
code.  It  is  the  unchallenged  fact  of  history 
that  the  Creator  and  Governor  of  all 
things,  who  had  power  to  do  whatsoever  he 
saw  to  be  needful  to  the  well-being  of  man 
"for  whom  all  creation  stood,"  stopped 
short  in  his  work  without  giving  him  a 
book  of  revelation.  This  must  have  been 
because  he  saw  it  would  be  better  to  use 
those  methods  of  revelation  which  history 
has  so  fully  justified  and  which  our  reason 
can  see  were  better  for  the  race  in  the 
early  stages  of  its  development  than  a 
written  book  could  have  been.  How  long 
that  period  was  before  the  beginning  of  a 
written  revelation  is  unknown.  It  was  cer- 
tainly much  longer  than  the  traditional 
view,  founded  on  the  unscholarly  chronol- 
ogy for  which  Archbishop  Usher  is  largely 
responsible,  makes  it.  Recent  discoveries 
in  archaeology,  in  the  uncovering  of  the 
cities  and  monuments  of  antiquity,  make 
it  certain  that  that  period  must  have  been 
from  four  to  eight  thousand  years,  possibly 

7 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

longer,  a  period  of  suflScient  length  to  jus- 
tify the  statement  that  the  Bible  is  com- 
paratively a  modern  development. 

During  that  long  prebiblical  period  the 
word  of  the  Lord  was  not  wanting;  it 
filled  the  earth,  but  in  other  forms  than 
that  in  which  we  have  it.  Through  all 
that  time,  as  in  every  other  period  of 
human  history,  according  to  Saint  PauFs 
argument  on  the  subject,  "God  left  not 
himself  without  witness,"  nor  ever  could 
leave  hi.nself  without  a  sufficient  declara- 
tion of  himself  and  of  his  will  for  the 
guidance  ji  men  in  religious  knowledge  and 
duty.  It  is  one  of  the  illustrations  of  our 
■)erverse  tendency  to  narrowness  of  thought 
in  such  matters  that  we  are  disposed  to 
think  that  because  the  written  revelation 
seems  essential  to  us,  it  must  have  been  so 
in  that  early  age  before  the  entanglements 
of  history  and  our  more  complex  life  had 
arisen.  But  the  conclusive  evidence  that 
such  a  revelation  was  not  necessary  is  the 
fact  that  it  was  not  given.  It  would  cer- 
tainly be  a  defective  administration  of  the 
world  that  would  withhold  at  the  be- 
ginning   of    history,    when    the    race    was 

8 


THE  WORLD  ^VITHOUT  A  BIBLE 

forming  character  and  determining  its 
course,  the  ministries  and  agencies  that 
would  be  most  helpful  to  it  in  getting 
upon  the  right  course.  To  suggest  that 
he  withheld  anything  that  would  have  con- 
tributed increased  knowledge  or  moral 
strength  in  that  formative  period  of  human 
life  in  the  earth  is  to  charge  God  with 
responsibility  for  those  evils  against  which 
he  inveighs  so  earnestly  and  to  which  he 
attributes  the  sufferings  of  this  life.  To 
that  early  period  he  gave  such  revelations 
as  the  conditions  required,  and  such  as 
would  make  the  strongest  appeal  to  man's 
nature  and  be  most  likely  to  receive  a 
favorable  response  from  him. 

The  historical  records  give  us  but  brief 
account  of  that  early  period,  but  what  we 
have  is  very  suggestive  on  the  subject  we 
are  considering.  There  is  an  account  of  a 
man  whose  knowledge  of  God  and  whose 
love  for  him  was  so  great  that  he  was  per- 
mitted to  walk  with  God  for  three  hundred 
years,  if  we  accept  the  biblical  account  of 
patriarchal  long  life,  and  finally  to  go  to 
live  with  him  without  passing  through  the 
shaded  gateway  of  death.    He  lived  before 

9 


THE  IVIAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

the  time  and  without  the  aid  of  the  Bible. 
There  was  another  of  whom  it  was  said 
that  he  "walked  with  God,"  whose  char- 
acter was  so  good  that  he  was  selected  out 
of  the  whole  race  as  the  one  most  worthy 
to  be  saved  from  the  world-destroying  flood 
and  to  be  the  new  progenitor  of  the  race. 
Noah  lived  and  died  without  knowing  even 
that  there  ever  was  to  be  a  Bible.  Methu- 
selah made  his  long  pilgrimage  without  any 
written  records  to  guide  him,  and  yet  seems 
to  have  been  well-pleasing  to  God.  The 
great  father  of  the  faithful  who  was  called 
"the  friend  of  God,"  who  stands  at  the 
head  of  the  line  of  believing  souls,  and 
whose  spiritual  children  all  true  believers 
are,  than  whom  no  better  character  has 
appeared  in  all  the  annals  of  history,  even 
Abraham,  who  by  simple  goodness  towers 
above  and  sheds  a  beneficent  moral  in- 
fluence over  the  ages,  came  from  what  we 
would  call  a  pagan  land,  where  there  was 
neither  Bible  nor  church.  There  was  a 
way  then  of  nourishing  a  soul  in  such 
beauty  and  richness  of  moral  excellence 
that  all  Bible-taught  and  church-sheltered 
souls  must  still  look  to  him  as  "the  father 

10 


THE  WORLD  WITHOUT  A  BIBLE 

of  the  faithful."  In  the  outlook  to  the 
future  which  God  gave  Abraham  nothing  is 
said  of  a  coming  book  or  a  rising  church, 
but  only  of  a  "seed,"  in  which  all  the 
earth  should  be  blessed,  and  in  which  book 
and  church  lay  implicit  as  parts  of  that 
blessing  which  all  the  world  was  to  receive 
through  the  "seed,"  which  was  Christ. 
The  revelation  he  then  had  was  adequate 
to  the  needs  of  such  an  exalted  character, 
and  it  gave  him  a  satisfying  outlook  to  the 
future. 

Out  of  that  great  prehistoric  period 
another  remarkable  specimen  of  its  high 
religious  characters  dips  for  a  moment  into 
our  atmosphere  to  give  us  a  decided  mental 
shock  and  to  suggest  that  we  have  but 
little  conception  of  the  glories  of  that  early 
period  of  splendid  living  when  man  walked 
and  talked  with  God.  All  after  times  have 
been  stirred  with  curiosity  about  the  per- 
son, high  religious  offices,  and  priestly 
character  of  Melchisedec.  The  only  con- 
tact he  has  with  our  modern  life  is  through 
the  single  incident  recorded  in  the  four- 
teenth chapter  of  Genesis.  He  is  here  re- 
ported to  have  met  Abraham  on  his  return 

11 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

from  the  slaughter  of  the  kings  and  to  have 
accepted  tithes  from  Abraham.  The  au- 
thor of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  takes 
up  the  incident  and  argues  from  it  that 
Melchisedec  must  have  been  a  greater  reli- 
gious character  than  Abraham,  for  the 
payment  of  tithes  to  him  by  Abraham  was 
an  acknowledgment  of  his  superiority.  In 
developing  his  argument  about  the  high- 
priesthood  of  Jesus  Christ  he  says  it  was 
"after  the  order  of  Melchisedec."  That 
seems  to  give  him  a  religious  and  official 
standing  above  that  of  any  of  the  great 
characters  in  the  history  of  Israel.  This 
suggests  to  us  the  possible  riches  in  reli- 
gious character  of  that  unreported,  prehis- 
toric age  that  found  ample  religious 
instruction  and  guidance  without  a  written 
revelation.  Another  pagan  who  does  not 
rise  quite  so  high  in  character,  yet  who 
gives  evidence  of  being  a  real  prophet  of 
the  Lord,  is  Baalam.  While  his  religious 
character  and  career  were  not  the  best, 
they  do  show  how  widespread  was  the 
prophetic  office  and  the  religious  teaching 
which  it  furnished. 

The  structure  of  Bible  teaching  is  such 

n 


THE  WORLD  WITHOUT  A  BIBLE 

as  to  imply  the  existence  of  the  conditions 
here  outhned.  Everywhere  it  is  assumed 
that  men  know  of  the  being  of  God  and 
are  accustomed  to  the  exercises  of  religion. 
Nowhere  is  the  being  of  God  asserted  or 
argued.  There  is  no  attempt  to  prove  that 
or  the  other  great  truths  of  religion.  The 
first  verse  of  the  Bible  assumes  the  whole 
case  by  simply  saying,  *Tn  the  beginning 
God  created,"  without  stopping  to  an- 
nounce, define,  or  prove  the  being  of  God. 
That  was  a  well-known  and  generally  ac- 
cepted fact.  It  had  passed  the  need  of 
any  formal  statement  or  proof.  The  same 
was  true  concerning  the  being  and  ac- 
tivity in  human  affairs  of  angels;  they 
move  out  on  the  theater  of  action  in  human 
affairs  as  though  they  had  long  been  known 
and  their  mission  understood  and  needed 
no  introduction  at  the  late  period  when 
biblical  writings  began. 

If  we  consider  the  circumstances  of  man's 
early  life  on  the  planet,  we  can  see  that 
a  highly  religious  life  might  be  maintained 
without  a  written  revelation.  He  was 
created  with  such  intellectual  and  spiritual 
powers  as  would  naturally  awaken  aspira- 

13 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

tions  and  soul-hunger  that  would  lead  him 
to  seek  after  God.  Placed  in  the  midst  of 
the  mechanism  and  active  forces  of  the 
material  universe,  with  the  arching  heavens 
above  him  and  the  smiling  earth  about  him, 
his  inquisitive  mind  would  begin  at  once 
to  ask  how  all  this  came  to  be  and  how  it 
was  maintained,  and  he  never  would  rest 
till  he  had  an  answer  to  these  questions. 
His  spiritual  aspirations,  soul-longings,  and 
consciousness  of  the  powers  and  possibili- 
ties of  his  being  would  lead  him  out  toward 
God.  The  human  mind  was  constructed 
with  reference  to  this  environment,  with 
powers  and  appetencies  that  when  properly 
used  would  lead  to  the  apprehension  and 
knowledge  of  the  truth. 

The  watchmaker  carefully  studies  the 
mechanism,  the  force  needed  to  drive  the 
machinery,  the  method  of  its  application, 
the  possibilities  of  repair  and  readjustment, 
and  finally  brings  forth  a  creation  that 
works  out  a  given  result  with  remarkable 
precision  and  continuity;  it  was  made  to 
attain  that  result.  It  may  need  much  care, 
frequent  windings,  and  occasional  repairs, 
but  all  that  is  provided  for  and  adapted  to 

14 


THE  WORLD  WITHOUT  A  BIBLE 

the  intelligence  that  is  supposed  to  use  it. 
It  was  constructed  with  reference  to  its 
own  powers  and  the  capabilities  of  those 
who  were  to  have  the  care  of  it.  We  cannot 
think  that  God  was  less  thoughtful  for  man 
when  forming  him  with  his  complex  nature 
of  body,  soul,  and  spirit  to  run  a  course  of 
development  and  broadening  activities 
through  the  centuries.  He  must  have 
carefully  computed  the  force  of  animal 
appetites  and  propensities,  of  such  mental 
endowments  as  reason,  imagination,  and 
will,  and  of  the  equipment  of  the  soul  with 
the  gift  of  conscience,  spiritual  aspirations, 
and  hunger  for  God,  intending  to  keep 
himself  in  close,  helpful,  and  directing  re- 
lations to  him.  Had  not  some  evil  influence 
come  in  from  without,  like  a  grain  of  sand 
thrown  into  the  mechanism  of  a  watch,  no 
doubt  man  would  have  run  his  course  as 
faithfully  as  any  timepiece  ever  made  by 
man's  less  skillful  art.  Notwithstanding 
the  perverting  and  corrupting  influence  of 
the  evil  that  entered  the  race  by  sin,  we 
must  believe  that  through  all  those  pre- 
biblical  ages  the  phenomena  of  the  natural 
universe,   and   the   activities,   aspirations, 

15 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

and  impulses  of  the  mind  of  man,  aided 
and  guided  by  the  revelations  given  to 
him,  were  suflBcient  to  lead  him  to  the 
knowledge  of  all  necessary  truth. 

The  visitations  of  angels  seems  to  have 
served  the  race,  as  written  revelations  have 
served  it  in  the  later  centuries,  for  impart- 
ing truth  and  spiritual  inspiration.  The 
very  first  step  from  Eden  out  into  the 
thorn-producing  world  was  under  the  di- 
rection of  one  of  the  seraphim  with  a  drawn 
sword  to  give  suggestion  of  a  punitive  ad- 
ministration of  government  henceforth, 
with  what  verbal  instruction  we  are  not 
informed.  Angels  appeared  to  Hagar  in 
the  wilderness,  to  Abraham  under  the 
Oaks  of  Mamre,  where  they  revealed  the 
doom  of  Sodom  and  lifted  the  veil  of  the 
future  from  the  coming  glories  of  his  fam- 
ily. They  appeared  to  Lot  in  Sodom,  they 
came  to  carry  Elijah  home,  and  they  stood 
guard  about  Elisha  when  menaced  by  a 
great  army.  In  all  the  great  events  of 
Bible  history  prior  to  the  completion  of  the 
written  revelation  angels  had  an  impor- 
tant part  in  revealing,  counseling,  and 
directing.     As  a  method  of   revelation   it 

16 


THE  WORLD  WITHOUT  A  BIBLE 

was  most  impressive  and  had  immediate 
effect. 

In  many  cases  God  himself  seems  to 
have  spoken  directly  to  men,  concealing 
himself,  but  declaring  his  purpose  and  his 
person.  Thus  he  spoke  to  Noah  concern- 
ing the  Flood,  giving  him  directions  for 
building  the  ark,  for  collecting  within  it 
the  living  creatures,  and  his  purpose  of 
cleansing  the  earth  by  means  of  the  Deluge. 
He  spoke  directly  to  Moses  out  of  the 
burning  bush,  giving  directions  for  his 
visits  to  Pharaoh,  at  various  times  in  the 
journey  toward  Canaan,  and  in  the  closing 
scenes  of  his  life.  How  frequent,  and  in 
how  many  different  parts  of  the  earth,  these 
personal  revelations  may  have  been  in  that 
prebiblical  period  we  have  no  means  of 
knowing.  They  reached  Abraham  in  Meso- 
potamia before  there  was  any  chosen  fam- 
ily or  redemptive  race,  while  he  belonged 
to  what  we  would  now  call  a  pagan  people. 
Such  revelations  reached  Melchisedec, 
Baalam,  and  others.  If  they  were  made  at 
all,  that  is  proof  that  they  were  possible 
and  expedient,  and  that  thej^  would  be 
made  as  often  as  the  needs  of  the  race 

17 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

required.  One  such  direct  communication 
from  God  would  be  repeated  by  men  over 
wide  districts  and  would  have  a  permanent 
and  potent  influence. 

In  addition  to  these  methods  of  convey- 
ing truth  to  men,  tradition  must  have  been 
a  very  important  means  of  disseminating 
and  preserving  the  knowledge  of  God.  The 
long  life  of  the  antediluvians,  free  from  the 
excitements  and  business  activity  of  mod- 
ern life,  was  favorable  to  the  correct 
transmission  of  truth  by  tradition.  Methu- 
selah was  the  contemporary  of  Adam  and 
Noah,  if  we  accept  the  Bible  account  of 
his  long  life,  so  that  Noah  might  hear  from 
the  lips  of  Methuselah  what  was  told  him 
by  Adam,  so  that  the  stories  of  creation 
and  of  the  garden  of  Eden  passed  through 
but  one  person  to  reach  Noah.  The  won- 
derful character  of  the  events,  and  of  the 
divine  manifestations  in  connection  with 
them,  would  insure  a  deep  and  lasting  im- 
pression on  the  minds  of  those  participating 
in  them  and  great  care  in  reporting  them. 

After  the  beginning  of  Hebrew  history 
God  appealed  to  and  seems  to  have  de- 
pended upon  this  method  of  disseminating 

18 


THE  WORLD  WITHOUT  A  BIBLE 

and  perpetuating  the  truth.  He  com- 
manded parents  to  diligently  teach  the 
facts  of  their  miraculous  history  to  their 
children:  "And  thou  shalt  teach  them  dili- 
gently to  thy  children,  and  shalt  talk  of 
them  when  thou  sittest  in  thine  house,  and 
when  thou  walkest  by  the  way,  and  when 
thou  liest  down,  and  when  thou  risest  up." 
The  accuracy  and  reliability  of  the  human 
memory  when  it  is  fully  trusted  and 
charged  with  the  responsibility  of  pre- 
serving important  truth  cannot  be 
doubted.  Before  we  had  spoiled  our 
memories  by  distrusting  them  and  making 
written  records  of  facts  that  once  would 
have  been  committed  to  their  safekeeping 
great  feats  of  memory  were  very  common. 
Conspicuous  among  these,  to  mention  but 
one  case,  was  the  fact  that  blind  Homer 
went  from  city  to  city  in  Greece  reciting 
to  wondering  crowds  the  matchless  periods 
of  his  immortal  epic. 

With  all  these  different  methods  em- 
ployed for  the  instruction  of  men  there 
must  have  come  to  them  very  clear  and 
convincing  declarations  of  truth  on  all 
important  subjects.    Our  knowledge  of  the 

19 


THE  IVIAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

character  and  purposes  of  God,  as  well  as 
the  few  glimpses  given  us  of  the  wonderful 
religious  characters  of  prebiblical  times, 
seem  to  warrant  the  conclusion  that  there 
were  ample  revelations  of  truth  in  forms 
more  effective  than  written  documents 
would  have  been. 


20 


CHAPTER  II 

A  BIBLE  BECOMES  NECESSARY 

The  changing  conditions  of  the  world 
made  a  change  of  method  in  dealing  with 
it  necessary.  When  the  race  had  grown 
out  of  its  primitive  state,  its  larger  intel- 
ligence and  broadening  fields  of  action  and 
its  more  complex  life  made  necessary  a 
fuller  revelation  with  better  ordered  and 
more  enduring  institutions  to  conserve  its 
religious  life.  Nations  were  multiplying, 
complicated  conditions  were  arising,  racial 
forces  were  moving  more  vigorously,  a 
keener  mental  analysis  and  a  more  search- 
ing philosophy  were  dealing  with  the  ques- 
tions of  life  and  being  that  were  forever 
pressing  for  solution,  and  a  clearer,  fuller 
revelation  of  truth  was  required  to  meet 
the  growing  needs  of  the  race.  Historical 
facts  were  liable  to  become  distorted  and 
corrupted  by  being  carried  too  long  in  the 
rather  loose  form  of  tradition.  Moral  and 
doctrinal  teachings  would  be  more  uniform 
and  less  liable  to  perversion  if  they  were 

21 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

committed  to  a  changeless  form  in  written 
documents. 

There  was,  however,  a  yet  greater  and 
more  pressing  need  for  a  written  form  of 
revelation.  There  was  to  be  introduced  a 
complex  and  supernatural  redemptive  sys- 
tem that  would  require  careful  and  ela'b- 
orate  statement  with  luminous  expositions 
easily  accessible.  The  great  moral  duties 
and  the  essential  elements  of  religion  might 
be  sufficiently  made  known  by  the  voice  of 
conscience,  the  light  of  nature,  and  the 
special  revelations  that  God  gave  to  men; 
but  the  entrance  of  Deity  into  a  human 
body  and  life,  the  sacrijficial  and  atoning 
death  of  that  divine-human  Person,  the 
possible  entrance  of  the  divine  into  every 
human  life  with  regenerating  and  sancti- 
fying power,  and  the  cooperation  in  this  of 
three  divine  Persons  in  the  unity  of  the 
Godhead,  of  whom  hitherto  there  had  been 
no  clear  revelation — all  this  would  seem  to 
require  a  definite  and  full  written  state- 
ment, that  there  might  be  a  proper  appre- 
hension and  clear  understanding  of  these 
great  truths. 

Great  preparations  were  made  to  give 
22 


A  BIBLE  BECOMES  NECESSARY 

this  revelation  a  proper  setting  and  a  po- 
sition of  strength  for  its  appeal  to  the 
human  mind.  A  special  family  was  set 
apart  to  project  a  new  nation  of  people 
into  the  stream  of  history,  consecrated  to 
a  high  and  peculiar  mission,  to  embody  and 
express  in  its  own  history  and  national  de- 
velopment the  great  idea  of  redemption  in 
a  succession  of  educating  events  and  insti- 
tutions leading  up  to  the  manifestation 
from  its  own  national  line  of  the  great 
Redeemer,  the  God-man.  Such  was  to  be 
the  dignity  of  his  person  and  the  glory  of 
his  work  that  there  should  be  centuries 
of  heraldry  going  before — incidents,  cove- 
nants, institutions,  and  prophetic  declara- 
tions, which  when  he  should  appear  would 
be  found  to  have  been  a  declaration  of  the 
fact  and  character  of  his  Messiahship. 
That  long  line  of  history  was  to  clear  a 
highway  for  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  God, 
into  the  very  structure  of  which  would  be 
wrought  evidences  and  proofs  of  his  Mes- 
siahship, of  its  character  and  purpose,  to 
which  he  would  perfectly  answer  in  his 
career  of  teaching,  suffering,  and  death, 
giving  proof  of  him  that  could  not  be  re- 

23 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

sisted  by  the  unprejudiced  mind.  This 
race  of  people  was  segregated  from  the 
rest  of  the  world,  shut  up  to  the  culture 
and  guardianship  of  its  great  idea  which 
was  the  center  of  its  life  and  the  reason 
for  its  being,  and  to  hold  the  deposit  of 
truth  given  to  it  which  it  was  uncon- 
sciously to  expound  and  confirm  in  its 
history.  There  was  to  be  little  commerce 
or  commingling  with  other  nations,  lest 
the  purity  and  sacredness  of  this  deposit 
should  be  corrupted.  This  is  the  teaching 
of  Saint  Paul,  when  he  asks,  "What  ad- 
vantage then  hath  the  Jew?  or  what 
profit  is  there  of  circumcision?"  He  an- 
swers his  own  question  by  saying,  "Much 
every  way :  chiefly,  because  that  unto  them 
were  committed  the  oracles  of  God,"  that 
is,  the  spoken  and  written  revelation,  the 
institutions  and  the  ceremonies  of  religion, 
prefiguring  and  announcing  the  coming 
Messiah.  This  is  the  fact  of  history,  that 
while  the  revelation  was  being  made,  and 
until  it  reached  its  culmination  in  the 
manifested  person  of  Him  who  was  its  life 
and  soul,  and  for  the  declaration  of  whom 
it  was  given — while  this  process  was  going 

24 


A  BIBLE  BECOMES  NECESSARY 

on,  the  people  within  whom  it  was  coming 
to  manifestation  were  sheltered  by  the 
divine  covenant  and  guardianship  in  a 
separate  and  sacred  position  where  no 
enemy  could  destroy  them  nor  thwart  the 
purpose  of  God  till  it  came  to  glorious 
realization. 

This  throws  a  flood  of  light  on  God's 
constancy  in  caring  for  fickle,  backsliding 
Israel.  How  he  could  have  borne  with 
them  in  their  lapses,  rebellions,  and  apos- 
tasies, holding  to  them  as  his  peculiar 
people,  bringing  them  back  from  their  cap- 
tivities, and  reestablishing  them  in  Jerusa- 
lem, appears  only  when  we  remember  that 
he  had  selected  them  as  the  organ  and 
instrument  for  manifesting  his  Son  to  the 
world.  He  could  not  change  in  the  midst 
of  the  process  from  one  people  to  another 
when  the  line  of  evidences  and  of  revela- 
tion was  half  finished,  but  must  continue 
to  use  a  poor  instrument  till  the  work  for 
which  it  was  taken  in  hand  was  finished, 
especially  as  the  identity  of  the  instrument 
was  the  voucher  for  the  integrity  of  the 
work.  When  the  work  was  done  and 
Messiah    had    been    manifested    to    the 

25 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

world,  Israel  had  completed  its  divinely 
appointed  mission  of  preparing  the  way 
for  the  coming  of  Messiah.  There  have 
been  no  divine  interpositions  to  bring 
them  back  to  Jerusalem  since  Messiah  was 
revealed. 

This  fundamental  purpose  in  the  calling 
of  Israel  is  made  clear  in  the  terms  of  the 
instituting  covenant  with  Abraham.  God 
promised  Abraham  that  he  should  have  a 
numerous  progeny,  "as  the  stars  of  heaven 
for  multitude,"  and  that  in  his  "seed  all 
nations  should  be  blessed."  Saint  Paul 
calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  singular 
number  is  here  used,  and  that  the  term 
"seed"  refers  to  Christ,  "He  saith  not, 
And  to  seeds,  as  of  many;  but  as  of  one. 
And  to  thy  seed,  which  is  Christ."  The 
whole  redemptive  scheme,  therefore,  lay 
implicit  in  that  covenant  with  Abraham. 
That  was  the  root  idea,  the  formative 
germ  of  the  whole  Hebrew  history  and 
polity,  their  only  reason  for  being,  their 
justification  and  explanation. 

This  new  epoch  in  world  development  and 
race  culture  in  religious  knowledge  and  life 
made  new  agencies  and  methods  necessary. 

26 


A  BIBLE  BECOMES  NECESSARY 

The  proposition  that  God  should  actually 
come  down  among  men  and  become  in- 
corporated into  the  life  of  the  race  by 
taking  on  himself  a  human  body,  being  born 
of  a  woman  that  he  might  redeem  and  sanc- 
tify the  whole  body  of  humanity,  was  a 
scheme  so  vast  that  it  would  justify  two 
thousand  years  of  educational  preparation 
and  notification,  and  the  introduction  of  a 
more  permanent  and  adequate  method  for 
announcing  and  expounding  the  facts  of 
this  great  redemptive  movement  in  written 
records,  such  as  we  have  in  the  Bible.  The 
Holy  Scriptures  were  one  element  in  the 
development  of  the  holy  "seed"  that  was 
to  be  a  blessing  to  "all  nations."  If  not 
the  greatest,  these  writings  are  one  of  the 
richest  blessings  that  have  come  to  the 
nations  out  of  that  covenant  with  Abra- 
ham. As  soon  as  the  great  redemptive 
idea  kindled  the  intelligence  of  man  with 
larger  and  brighter  thoughts  about  God 
and  concerning  his  own  being  and  destiny, 
the  impulse  to  record,  expound,  and 
prophesy  must  have  come  into  the  soul 
of  man  as  an  impelling  inspiration.  This 
lifted  the  ethical  and  spiritual  nature  of 

27 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

man  above  the  domain  of  nature  and 
natural  suggestion  could  no  longer  minister 
adequately  to  these  higher  reaches  of  life; 
the  divine  life  coming  into  fellowship  and 
alliance  with  the  life  of  man  made  necessary 
the  incoming  of  divine  truth  in  larger 
measure  than  nature  could  give.  Special 
divine  revelations  would  no  longer  be  ade- 
quate, for  the  broader  fields  of  knowledge 
now  opening  to  the  minds  of  men  and  the 
larger  development  of  the  nations  would 
invite  and  insure  careful  scrutiny  and 
earnest  discussion  that  could  not  be  suc- 
cessfully conducted  without  written  docu- 
ments that  could  be  compared  with  each 
other  and  with  known  facts.  This  won- 
derful system  of  redemption,  that  burst 
forth  like  a  new  dawn  on  the  world's 
growing  intelligence,  would  require  ample 
statement  and  exposition  in  forms  that 
could  be  pondered  and  studied.  Nature  is 
quite  silent  here.  She  has  no  voice  pitched 
to  the  key  of  redemption;  her  register  does 
not  include  the  high  notes  of  redeeming 
love.  Even  an  angel's  jubilant  song  is  not 
sufficient  unless  it  can  be  recorded,  so  that 
the  mind  of  man  may  turn  to  it  often  when 

28 


A  BIBLE  BECOMES  NECESSARY 

nature  seems  dry  and  empty.  The  high 
and  transcendental  are  so  woven  in  with 
the  low  and  natural  that  we  should  be 
whelmed  in  endless  confusion  and  per- 
plexity if  we  had  not  "a  more  sure  word 
of  prophecy,  whereunto  we  do  well  that 
we  take  heed,"  that  is  ever  accessible  for 
our  enlightenment  and  instruction.  The 
work  of  redemption  makes  a  personal  ap- 
peal and  contemplates  a  personal  life  unto 
holiness  that  makes  necessary  a  daily  coun- 
selor in  righteousness  and  truth  such  as 
the  Bible  is.  The  noble  living,  the  world- 
girdling  service,  and  the  missionary  efforts 
of  the  Christian  men  of  this  age  would 
not  be  possible  but  for  the  instruction 
and  inspiration  that  come  out  of  the 
book. 

Yet  it  is  a  most  delicate  thing  to  give 
such  a  revelation  as  is  here  supposed,  for 
rules  of  safety  themselves  create  great 
danger  by  leading  to  overmuch  confidence 
in  them  when  conditions  arise  to  which 
they  do  not  apply,  and  by  disarming  that 
watchfulness  and  care  which  are  the  best 
guarantees  of  safety.  If  the  Bible  had 
been  intended  to  be  a  guidebook  in  the 

29 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

sense  that  it  would  tell  us  just  what  to  do 
—how  often  to  pray,  how  often  to  fast, 
how^  much  to  give,  with  all  the  other  de- 
tails of  a  good  life — it  could  all  have  been 
done  plainly,  so  that  there  could  have 
been  no  mistake,  in  a  document  not 
larger  than  one  of  Saint  Paul's  epistles, 
but  it  would  have  been  a  false  leading,  a 
betrayal  of  humanity  in  its  most  sacred 
interests.  Humanity  would  have  ro!  ted  in 
moral  decay  and  spiritual  death  under 
such  a  system.  The  revelation  must  be 
In  such  a  form  as  respects  and  preserves 
man's  freedom,  and  develops  his  sense  of 
responsibility  for  seeking,  finding,  and  in- 
terpreting the  truth,  and  for  applying 
general  principles  tc  individual  acts.  It 
is  necessary  for  man's  spiritual  and  intel- 
lectual development  to  place  the  truth,  as 
God  has  placed  the  gold,  the  grains,  and 
the  fruits  of  the  earth,  where  we  must 
search  and  dig  to  get  it.  Hence  revelation 
comes  to  us,  like  the  narrow  veins  of  gold 
that  run  high  up  over  the  crest  of  the 
mountains  and  can  be  reached  only  by 
hard  climbing  and  keen-eyed  vision,  tucked 
away  in  scraps  of  history,  bits  of  poetry, 

30 


A  BIBLE  BECOMES  NECESSARY 

sparkling  proverbs,  thrilling  dramas,  deep- 
toned,  far-sounding  prophecies,  fascinating 
love  stories,  charming  epistolary  letters  to 
friends,  and  world-embracing  apocalyptic 
visions. 

That  written  revelation  synchronizes 
with  the  history  of  redemption,  that  it 
was  part  of  its  machinery  and  equipment, 
and  that  its  great  necessity  rose  out  of  it, 
appears  not  only  in  the  fact  that  it  began 
under  Moses,  who  first  gave  the  redemp- 
tive movement  organized  form,  that  its 
writers  were  limited  to  the  redemptive  peo- 
ple, and  that  redemption  both  of  Israel 
and  of  the  world  was  its  distinguishing  and 
predominant  theme,  but  also  by  the  fact 
that  the  volume  of  written  revelation  closed 
with  the  recording  and  exposition  of  the 
events  connected  with  the  culmination  of 
that  history  of  redemption  in  the  life, 
death,  and  resurrection  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  When  redemption  was  completed, 
written  revelation  was  finished. 

The  maledictions  pronounced  upon  any- 
one who  should  presume  to  add  anything 
to  what  had  been  written  in  the  time  of 
the   apostles   seems   also   to  confirm   this 

31 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

view  of  the  interdependence  of  written 
revelation  and  developing  redemption. 
The  book  is  the  herald  and  the  witness  of 
the  Son,  the  God-man. 


32 


CHAPTER  III 

NECESSARY  LIMITATIONS  TO  A 
REVELATION 

So  long  as  it  was  possible  for  man  to 
dig  out  the  truth  as  it  lay  buried  in  the 
facts  of  nature  and  of  his  own  being,  or 
to  find  it  by  lifting  up  his  soul  to  God,  it 
was  better  for  him  that  he  should  be  left 
without  a  written  revelation.  Nothing 
contributes  more  to  man's  development 
than  searching  for  the  truth,  keeping  him- 
seK  in  the  love  of  the  truth  that  he  may 
find  it,  and  holding  himself  en  rapport 
with  his  environment  and  with  God,  that 
he  may  discover  and  know  the  truth.  The 
search  for  it  in  an  educational  and  dis- 
ciplinary way  is  almost  of  equal  value  to 
its  possession.  The  fact  that  God  did  not 
give  man  a  written  revelation  till  so  many 
centuries  after  his  appearance  on  the  earth 
is  the  most  conclusive  evidence  that  it 
was  not  best  for  him  to  have  it.  We 
cannot  sound  the  depths  of  the  divine 
plans,  yet  there  are  apparent  many  rea- 

33 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

sons  why  it  was  better  for  man  to  be  led 
into  the  temple  of  truth  by  the  diligence 
of  his  own  effort  and  the  fidelity  of  his 
spirit  in  the  search  for  it. 

Help  that  is  not  necessary  is  a  hindrance. 
We  make  people  paupers,  destroy  their 
si'lf-respect,  and  deny  them  the  develop- 
ment that  is  attained  only  by  effort  by 
giving  them  help  when  they  could  and 
should  help  themselves.  Many  teachers 
dwarf  instead  of  developing  the  minds 
of  their  pupils  by  solving  the  hard  prob- 
lems for  them  and  lifting  them  over 
heights  where  they  should  develop  their 
muscles  by  climbing.  Many  parents  keep 
their  children  babies  forever  by  satisfying 
all  their  needs  and  shielding  them  from  the 
toil  and  struggle  that  makes  strong  men. 
That  toiling  boy  whom  you  pity  for  the 
hardness  of  his  lot  will  some  day  live  in  a 
palace  which  he  has  earned,  while  your  pam- 
pered son  will  be  spending  on  a  worthless 
life  money  that  he  did  not  earn.  The  race 
would  never  have  grown  out  of  its  infancy 
if  God  had  given  to  man  a  full  revelation  of 
the  truth  at  the  first.  He  left  man  to  find 
out  the  boundaries  of  the  continents  and 

34 


LIMITATIONS   TO   A   REVELATION 

the  seas,  and  to  discover  the  spherical  form 
of  the  earth  and  the  forces  of  nature  by 
exploration  and  scientific  study.  He  waited 
for  man  to  discover  steam  power  and  elec- 
tricit/  because  it  ministered  to  human  de- 
velopment to  wrestle  with  the  problems  of 
creation,  to  track  the  forces  of  nature  to 
their  hiding  places  and  devise  a  method 
for  bringing  them  forth  and  harnessing 
them  to  the  machinery  of  life  for  manu- 
facture and  transportation.  It  is  an  af- 
fecting spectacle  to  see  man  footsore  and 
weary  trudging  over  the  mountains,  bearing 
his  heavy  burdens  on  his  shoulders,  while 
in  his  own  home  puffing  steam  was  trying 
to  make  itself  articulate  in  its  crude  lan- 
guage to  tell  him  that  it  was  there  to  do 
his  work  and  to  run  his  errands  for  him. 
But  still  he  preferred  to  work  his  muscle 
and  let  his  brain  lie  dormant  in  a  stupor 
that  to  us  seems  incredible.  God  would 
not  tell  him  the  truth  he  ought  to  discern 
for  himself.  Electricity  kindled  its  bon- 
fires in  the  sky  at  night  to  notify  him  it 
was  there;  it  ran  about  the  heavens  in 
zigzag  fire  to  show  its  speed  of  movement; 
it  shook  the  earth  with  its  thunder  peals 

35 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

to  suggest  its  power;  it  smote  men  dead 
and  threw  their  charred  corpses  across  the 
path  of  industry  in  its  appeal  to  them  to 
awake  and  call  it  into  their  service;  and 
still  they  only  cringed  with  fear  and  whined 
about  the  hardness  of  their  lot.  God  would 
not  tell  them  if  they  were  so  stupid  as  not 
to  read  these  indications.  He  waited  that 
man  might  have  the  benefit  of  thinking, 
the  growing  confidence  of  conquest,  and 
the  enlarging  self-respect  of  achievement. 
Discovery  was  better  than  revelation.  It 
holds  true  in  the  moral  and  spiritual  realm 
also.  It  is  better  for  men  to  seek  the  truth, 
to  inquire  and  pray  for  it,  to  long  for  it; 
then  when  they  find  it  they  have  already 
risen  to  a  state  of  mind  to  make  a  wise 
use  of  it. 

It  is  quite  impossible  for  men  to  under- 
stand and  appreciate  the  truth  unless  they 
have  this  spirit  of  inquiry  and  the  disposi- 
tion to  search  for  it.  This  principle  was 
clearly  announced  to  Isaiah  when  he  re- 
ceived his  commission  as  a  prophet,  and  it 
is  quoted  by  Jesus  as  an  explanation  of 
the  dullness  of  the  Jews  in  understanding 
his  parables.     When  Isaiah  had  his  won- 

36 


LIMITATIONS   TO  A   REVELATION 

derfiil  temple  vision,  it  was  said  to  him, 
after  he  had  offered  himself  for  a  messenger 
of  the  Lord,  "Go  and  tell  this  people, 
Hear  ye  indeed,  but  understand  not;  and 
see  ye  indeed,  but  perceive  not."  Jesus 
teaches  that  he  used  parables  for  this  very 
purpose  of  concealing  the  truth  from  those 
who  did  not  love  it  and  long  for  it,  lest 
they  would  insult  it  and  trample  it  under 
their  feet.  The  same  principle  was  illus- 
trated in  our  Lord's  refusal  to  gratify  the 
curiosity  of  the  Pharisees  by  working  a 
miracle  to  be  seen  of  them,  as  they  would 
look  on  any  trick  of  legerdemain.  It  is  a 
profanation  of  the  truth  to  handle  it 
lightly,  to  treat  it  irreverently;  therefore 
it  is  placed  where  it  can  be  reached  only 
by  sincerity,  effort,  and  honesty  of  pur- 
pose. It  is  not  flung  out  heedlessly  like 
pearls  before  swine,  lest  they  trample  it 
under  their  feet,  not  knowing  or  caring 
what  it  is,  and  then  turn  about  to  destroy' 
the  very  agencies  that  gave  it  to  them. 
Like  all  of  God's  gifts,  truth  is  so  placed  that 
we  must  seek  it  if  we  would  find  it,  and 
we  must  love  it  if  we  would  understand  it. 
We  must  dig  in  the  soil  to  get  God's  gift 

37 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

of  bread,  blast  the  quartz  to  get  his  gift  of 
gold,  and  so  must  we  break  off  the  shell 
that  enfolds  the  kernel  of  the  truth  if  we 
would  possess  it.  There  is  this  hiding  of 
the  truth  in  the  very  form  of  its  revela- 
tion to  protect  it  from  too  familiar  hand- 
ling by  irreverent  and  unsympathetic 
minds.  "Clouds  and  darkness  are  round 
about  him,"  and  he  hideth  even  his  truth 
wondrously  from  the  eyes  of  the  curious 
and  the  proud.  This  limitation  is  put 
upon  the  whole  system  of  revelation,  even 
upon  the  grandest  expression  of  it  in  the 
person  of  our  Lord,  "God  manifested  in 
the  flesh."  The  truth  was  so  hidden  under 
forms  of  flesh  and  common  life  that 
carnal  men  could  not  see  it,  nor  could  they 
discern  the  fineness  of  his  spirit  nor  under- 
stand the  meaning  of  his  simple  words. 
They  misjudged  him  because  they  hated 
him,  while  the  Simeons  and  the  Annas 
recognized  and  hailed  him  with  joy  as  the 
Messiah.  It  was  the  divine  wisdom  ex- 
pressing itself  according  to  this  uniform 
principle,  to  put  the  truth  in  its  highest 
expression  in  a  form  to  be  recognized  only 
by  the  lovers  of  truth.    Others  said,  "He 

oa 


LI]\nTATIONS   TO   A   REVELATION 

hath  a  devil,  why  hear  ye  him?"  This 
they  said  because  the  spirit  of  the  devil 
was  in  them,  and,  according  to  our  prin- 
ciple, they  could  see  only  what  was  in 
themselves.  We  often  complain  that  reve- 
lation is  not  more  clear,  that  God  does  not 
disclose  himself  more  positively  in  the 
moral  conflicts  of  life,  that  truth  is  not 
put  beyond  the  possibility  of  cavil,  but 
the  interests  of  truth  itself  and  of  the  souls 
of  men  are  served  by  thus  placing  it  so 
that  we  come  to  know  it  only  as  we  rise 
to  the  spirit  that  would  make  a  proper 
use  of  it,  and  not  turn  its  possession  to 
evil  account. 

It  is  well  to  reflect  also  that  there  are 
many  things  that  we  cannot  know  fully 
in  our  present  state  without  spoiling  the 
beauty  and  symmetry  of  our  earthly  lives. 
We  could  not  know  all  the  glories  of  the 
heavenly  life  without  unhinging  our  work- 
ing force  here,  and  destroying  our  appre- 
ciation and  interest  in  things  of  the 
present  life.  It  is  much  better  for  our 
earthly  lives  that  "we  know  in  part,"  that 
we  should  have  but  a  dim  outline  of  the 
future  world,  till  our  work  in  this  world 

39 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

is  done.  It  is  also  better  for  our  moral 
development,  for  it  is  hardly  possible  that 
purely  moral  considerations  could  have  a 
fair  field  if  there  were  revelations  of  future 
conditions  that  would  practically  coerce 
the  mind.  The  mind  must  be  kept  free 
from  overpowering  constraints,  or  from 
revelations  that  would  practically  leave 
us  no  option;  the  highest  moral  action 
requires  absolute  freedom.  We  never 
get  a  fair  test  of  a  child's  obedience 
while  we  stand  over  it  with  a  rod  in 
our  hands. 

Thus  also  the  sanctity  and  dignity  of 
the  truth  are  maintained  by  putting  it 
beyond  the  reach  of  profane  and  captious 
minds.  It  is  placed  in  such  relations  to  us 
as  to  give  us  intimations  of  its  existence, 
of  its  character,  and  of  the  method  of  ap- 
proach to  it,  but  we  can  really  possess  it 
only  by  loving  it,  working  for  it,  and  exer- 
cising sincerity  and  honesty  of  purpose 
toward  it.  It  is  plainly  declared  by  Saint 
Paul  that  the  higher  truths  cannot  be 
known  by  the  carnal  mind.  He  says,  "But 
the  natural  man  receiveth  not  the  things  of 
the  Spirit  of  God:  for  they  are  foolishness 

40 


LIMITATIONS   TO  A   REVELATION 

unto  him:  neither  can  he  know  them,  for 
they  are  spiritually  discerned."  We  must 
rise  to  their  level  before  we  can  know 
them,  and  have  hearts  worthy  of  them 
before  they  will  take  up  their  abode 
within  us.  The  truth  seeks  its  level  as 
water  does,  and  is  sure  to  find  it.  It  is 
therefore  natural  that  as  men  rise  in  moral 
elevation  and  spirituality  their  knowledge 
of  truth  broadens  and  becomes  more  satis- 
fying. There  are  inner  chambers  of  truth 
to  be  entered  only  by  those  who  have 
proven  themselves  worthy  of  it  by  their 
fidelity  to  the  more  primary  revelations. 
The  truth  is  of  value  only  to  those  who  will 
use  it  properly,  therefore  it  is  revealed  in 
such  forms  as  to  become  accessible  only  to 
those  who  have  the  spirit  to  make  such 
use  of  it.  We  often  wonder  why  revelation 
is  not  plainer,  why  we  must  read  so  much 
history,  biography,  poetry,  parables,  and 
epistles  to  get  at  it;  and  even  then  much  of 
it  is  vague,  involved,  and  hard  to  be  under- 
stood. This  is  the  honey  in  the  rock  which 
no  man  can  get  without  climbing  for  il; 
and  he  will  not  climb  for  it  unless  he  really 
desires  it.     There  is  a  sacred  trinity  of 

41 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

revelation,  holding  the  truth  in  triple  form 
before  the  mind  of  man — in  nature,  in 
man's  mysterious  being  and  life,  and  in 
the  Word.  The  Word  made  flesh  and  the 
Word  made  fact,  or  expressing  fact,  were 
both  from  the  same  source  and  are  closely 
related  in  nature  and  oflSce.  A  veil  of 
flesh  and  of  form  in  the  putting  is  thrown 
over  both,  that  their  sanctity  may  appear 
only  to  those  who  are  prepared  in  spirit 
to  do  them  reverence.  The  audience  cham- 
ber of  the  King  is  thus  protected  from 
rude  and  irreverent  intrusion.  Such  jealous 
regard  for  the  sanctity  of  the  truth  on  the 
part  of  its  Author  only  enhances  its  value 
in  the  eyes  of  men  and  intensifies  their 
desire  and  search  for  it. 

This  is  one  of  the  glories  of  revelation, 
one  of  the  proofs  of  its  genuineness,  that 
it  is  thus  limited  and  held  in  reserve.  Just 
enough  is  given  to  show  man  his  duty  in 
plain  speech  that  cannot  be  misunderstood 
and  to  excite  his  interest  to  learn  more  if 
he  is  sincerely  desiring  to  know  the  truth; 
then  the  vast  fields  of  truth  lie  open  for 
his  exploration  and  discovery.  God  must 
conceal  himself  behind  his  works,  and  veil 

4d 


LIMITATIONS   TO  A   REVELATION 

his  truth  in  forms  that  require  study.  We 
often  wonder  in  the  thick  of  the  fight, 
especially  when  the  battle  goes  against  us, 
why  God  does  not  come  forth  and  show 
himself  and  thus  give  victory  to  the  cause 
of  righteousness.  We  hear  the  buffeted 
and  bafl3ed  patriarch  of  Uz  saying  in  his 
distress:  "Oh  that  I  knew  where  I  might 
find  him!  .  .  .  Behold,  I  go  forward,  but 
he  is  not  there;  and  backward,  but  I  can- 
not perceive  him:  on  the  left  hand,  where 
he  doth  work,  but  I  cannot  behold  him: 
he  hideth  himself  on  the  right  hand,  that 
I  cannot  see  him."  God  himself  has  de- 
clared that  no  man  can  see  his  face  and 
live,  and  certainl}^  his  presence  would  so 
awe  and  overpower  us  that  there  could 
be  no  freedom  or  naturalness  of  action, 
and  hence  no  proper  development  of  char- 
acter. He  must  withhold  such  a  manifes- 
tation of  himself  as  would  be  disturbing  to 
the  natural  forces  with  which  he  has  en- 
dowed man,  his  appetites,  aspirations,  rea- 
son, imagination,  and  will.  Many  truths 
too  baldly  stated  would  be  disturbing  and 
hurtful  rather  than  helpful.  Thus  Saint 
Paul,  in  his  First  Epistle  to  the  Thessa- 

43 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

lonians,  said  some  very  plain  and  strong 
things  about  the  second  coming  of  Christ. 
Many  of  the  Thessalonians  were  greatly 
excited  and  disturbed  by  what  he  said 
and  ran  to  extremes  in  their  preparation 
for  the  event,  even  giving  up  all  business, 
ceasing  to  work,  and  going  about  as  "busy- 
bodies"  because  they  expected  the  imme- 
diate coming  of  the  Lord.  So  that  in  his 
second  epistle  he  had  to  warn  them  not 
to  be  "shaken  in  mind,  or  be  troubled," 
as  "by  letter  from  us,  as  that  the  day  of 
Christ  is  at  hand."  The  light  was  too 
strong  for  the  eye  and  had  to  be  shaded 
by  throwing  over  the  truth  an  indefinite- 
ness  as  to  time  and  circumstances  of  the 
great  event,  that  the  mind  might  resume 
its  normal  working. 

The  possibility  of  failure  to  arrive  at 
the  exact  truth  because  of  this  obscurity  in 
some  of  its  presentations  cannot  endanger 
the  salvation  of  the  soul,  for  judgment  is 
to  be  in  proportion  to  the  light  we  have. 
If  no  man  was  to  be  saved  but  he  who  had 
full  knowledge  of  the  truth,  none  would  be 
saved,  for  no  one  ever  yet  had  such  knowl- 
edge.   Our  judgment  will  be  "according  to 

44 


LIMITATIONS   TO   A   REVELATION 

that  a  man  hath,  and  not  according  to  that 
he  hath  not." 

The  revelation  was  given  by  an  om- 
niscient Being,  who  must  have  foreseen 
how  it  would  be  misunderstood,  and  he 
could  have  stated  it  in  tabular  form,  like 
the  Decalogue,  so  as  to  have  avoided  these 
misunderstandings.  Our  creed-makers  had 
that  much  ability.  When  our  Lord  prayed 
that  his  disciples  might  be  "one,"  he  must 
have  foreseen  the  divisions  and  misunder- 
standings that  were  so  soon  to  arise.  In 
no  more  words  than  are  required  to  utter 
that  prayer  he  could  forever  have  rendered 
impossible  the  Arian  controversy,  the 
heresy  of  Pelagius,  the  controversy  about 
the  primacy  of  Saint  Peter,  the  right  of 
the  pope  of  Rome  to  rule  Christendom; 
and  many  other  questions  that  have  dis- 
turbed the  peace  of  the  church  could  have 
been  settled  or  their  very  consideration 
rendered  impossible.  But  he  saw  clearly 
that  it  was  better  for  man's  intellectual 
and  spiritual  development  to  leave  the 
truth  in  the  form  in  which  we  have  it, 
rather  than  to  remand  man  to  an  infantile 
state  by  doing  his  thinking  for  him  and 

45 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

taking  from  him  the  necessity  to  struggle 
and  contend  for  the  truth.  It  is  a  great 
moral  sieve,  sifting  out  the  unworthy,  the 
captious,  the  insincere,  the  designing,  and 
the  false,  as  Saint  Paul  teaches  when  he 
says,  "There  must  be  also  heresies  among 
you,  that  they  which  are  approved  may 
be  made  manifest  among  you."  The  here- 
sies taught  in  Corinth,  that  seemed  to 
give  so  much  trouble,  performed  that  use- 
ful office  of  sifting  the  wheat  from  the 
chaff. 

It  was  evidently  the  design  in  giving  a 
revelation  that  a  close  and  vital  relation 
should  be  maintained  between  every  soul 
of  man  and  the  Holy  Ghost  for  spiritual 
power,  illumination,  and  guidance  "into  all 
truth."  This  was  the  clear  teaching  of  the 
Master  in  his  address  to  the  disciples  on 
the  personality  and  offices  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  as  recorded  by  Saint  John.  He 
teaches  that  it  would  be  better  for  him  to 
go  away,  that  spiritual  teaching  and  illu- 
mination might  take  the  place  of  the  formal 
words  he  was  uttering,  and  that  inde- 
pendent thinking  under  the  guidance  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  would  be  far  better  for  them 

46 


LIMITATIONS   TO   A   REVELATION 

and  the  church  for  all  time  than  to  have  a 
visible  leader  to  whom  they  could  go  with 
questions  when  any  difficult  matter  arose. 
Inward  illumination  is  better  than  peda- 
gogy- 

The  Bible  is  the  norm  and  formal  state- 
ment of  the  truth,  but  its  interpretation 
and  application  to  the  individual  life  must 
be  by  the  conscience  and  judgment  il- 
luminated and  guided  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 
The  Word  was  inspired  by  the  Spirit,  and 
it  should  be  read  with  a  consciousness  of 
that  fact  and  with  the  prayer  that  the 
inspiring  Spirit  should  become  the  inter- 
preter of  the  Word.  He  knows  what  was 
mtended  in  the  writing  and  he  can  make 
its  meaning  plain.  Therefore  prayer  for 
the  illumination  and  guidance  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  has  always  been  considered  an  essen- 
tial to  proper  Bible-reading.  The  casual, 
the  critical,  or  the  careless  reader  may  get 
very  little  and  see  very  little  significance 
in  this  revelation  if  it  is  read  without  this 
spiritual  light  upon  it,  for  revelation  is  not 
in  the  book  alone,  but  upon  the  book  and 
upon  the  mind  of  man  that  it  may  reach 
the  understanding  aright.    Revelation  is  a 

47 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

perpetual,  ever-active  movement  of  the 
Spirit  of  God,  never  finished  and  never 
suspended,  if  not  in  giving  new  truth, 
then  in  throwing  new  hght  on  the  old 
according  to  the  needs  of  men.  We 
greatly  dishonor  the  Holy  Spirit  and  his 
offices  among  men  if  we  supposfe  him  less 
active  now  than  at  any  former  period. 
The  interests  involved  are  greater,  the 
conditions  of  human  life  are  more  com- 
plex, the  population  of  the  world  is  larger, 
the  progress  of  the  kingdom  of  God  is 
more  rapid,  and  unless  he  has  given  up 
the  field  entirely  the  activities  of  the 
Spirit  must  be  greater  than  at  any  former 
time.  The  flow  of  truth  from  the  divine 
to  the  human  mind  must  be  as  constant  as 
that  of  sunlight  from  the  sun,  or  of  the  air 
which  we  breathe,  if  man  is  to  have  the 
freshness  and  vigor  of  divine  truth  for  his 
spiritual  life. 


48 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  ^L\KIXG  OF  THE  CAXOX 

The  Old  Testament 

The  Bible  was  an  unconscious  growth. 
Probably  no  one  book  was  written  with  any 
thought  that  it  would  become  a  part  of  a 
sacred  canon.  The  wTiters  generally  wrote 
under  some  immediate  spur  or  impulse,  on 
some  local  issues,  or  to  meet  some  pressing 
contemporaneous  need.  If  they  had  known 
the  prominence  and  influence  their  writings 
were  to  have  in  the  coming  ages,  they 
would  have  been  self-conscious  and  inca- 
pable of  responding  perfectly  to  the  move- 
ments of  the  Divine  Spirit.  It  would  not 
be  possible  for  any  human  mind  to  have 
such  an  expectation  with  respect  to  its 
productions  without  being  powerfully  af- 
fected by  it,  and  probably  without  being 
incapable  of  the  simplicity  and  singleness 
of  aim  necessary  in  the  adequate  state- 
ment of  the  truth. 

The  first  books  of  the  Bible  were  prob- 
49 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

ably  written  from  the  historical  standpoint, 
to  record  and  preserve  the  knowledge  of 
important  events.  Then  dramatic  repre- 
sentations of  the  truth  appear,  after  which 
come  devotional  books  of  praise  and 
prayer.  Next  in  order  are  the  Wisdom 
books,  containing  proverbs,  maxims,  and 
wise  sayings  for  practical  life,  and,  finally, 
the  prophets  give  us  earnest  appeals  in 
behalf  of  righteousness  and  predictions  of 
future  events.  In  none  of  these  writings 
is  there  any  intimation  that  future  ages 
were  in  the  thought  of  the  authors,  and 
there  is  no  manifest  consciousness  that 
what  was  written  was  to  go  into  the 
formation  of  a  sacred  book  to  become  the 
guide  of  God's  people  for  all  time.  There 
was  no  statement  or  intimation  that  they 
were  written  with  such  an  object  in  view, 
or  that  it  was  at  the  time  the  intention  of 
the  Divine  Spirit  that  what  was  written 
should  finally  be  used  for  such  a  purpose, 
or  that  it  was  intended  ever  to  give  such  a 
book  as  the  Bible  to  men.  These  separate 
writings  each  accomplished  the  purpose  for 
which  it  was  written,  living  and  holding  its 
place  in  the  literature  of  the  world  among 

.50 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CANON 

many  similar  productions,  till  at  last  the 
discerning  minds  among  believers  came  to 
see  the  permanent  and  universal  quality 
in  the  special  message  and  the  evidences 
of  divine  inspiration  which  it  contained, 
and  so  gave  it  a  place  in  the  collection  of 
books  that  finally  made  up  the  sacred 
canon.  Some  of  them  were  several  cen- 
turies in  winning  the  recognition  which 
gave  them  their  present  position.  Some 
of  them  were  very  unpopular  at  the  time 
of  their  appearance;  some  were  greeted 
with  a  divided  sentiment  and  heated  con- 
troversy. Some  of  the  prophets  were  ac- 
cused of  disloyalty  to  their  reigning 
sovereigns  and  of  consorting  with  the 
enemies  of  the  state;  some  were  accepted 
as  useful  for  instruction,  but  not  as  au- 
thority in  matters  of  rehgion.  Not  till 
contemporaneous  asperities  had  died  away, 
and  the  essential  truth  emerged  from  the 
local  and  temporary  conditions,  were  these 
productions  fully  appreciated  and  their 
high  and  universal  quality  recognized. 

The  literary  instinct,  as  well  as  the 
practical  needs  of  a  literature,  grew  as 
the  centuries  advanced,  and  in  the  later 

51 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

years  of  Israel's  history  many  manuscripts 
appeared.  They  were  historical,  poetical, 
devotional,  and  dramatic,  with  the  Israel- 
itish  people  as  the  center  and  boundary 
of  thought.  This  fecundity  of  thought 
became  embarrassing  and  naturally  forced 
the  question  of  the  relative  standing  and 
value  of  these  various  productions.  From 
those  that  were  certainly  divinely  inspired 
they  shaded  off  by  gradations  of  quality 
to  those  that  were  certainly  not  divinely 
inspired,  but  it  was  exceedingly  difficult 
to  draw  the  line  of  just  separation.  It 
would  not  do  to  take  the  assumption  or 
claim  of  the  author,  for  some  that  were 
certainly  inspired  were  written  by  men  too 
modest  to  make  any  claim,  while  then,  as 
in  all  subsequent  history,  some  were  very 
bold  in  claiming  divine  inspiration  whose 
productions  belied  their  claim.  It  would 
be  unwise  in  a  time  of  national  conflict  to 
ask  a  verdict  concerning  the  inspiration  of 
a  passionately  patriotic  production  that 
fitted  in  well  with  the  circumstances  and 
temper  of  the  times,  for  a  dispassionate 
and  reliable  judgment  under  such  circum- 
stances  would   be   improbable.     Passion, 

52 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CANON 

prejudice,  or  party  feeling  must  not  enter 
here;  the  feeHngs  awakened  at  the  ap- 
pearance of  such  a  production  must  be 
allowed  to  cool  and  the  publication  must 
be  tried  and  proven  in  the  stress  of  life's 
great  needs  by  more  than  one  generation 
before  it  can  be  recognized  as  worthy  of  a 
place  in  the  sacred  canon.  Even  then  it 
was  never  possible  to  arrive  at  unanimity 
of  judgment.  To  this  day  these  differences 
persist,  and  the  Roman  Catholics  accept  as 
canonical  various  books  which  Protestants 
denominate  apocryphal. 

A  great  number  of  manuscripts  were  be- 
fore the  public  and  were  in  use  in  their 
schools,  in  public  worship,  and  for  in- 
struction in  national  history.  The  time 
came  when  the  most  discreet  and  learned 
saw  that  there  must  be  a  classification  of 
their  literature  and  a  definite  setting  apart 
of  such  books  as  they  considered  authori- 
tative and  worthy  of  being  accepted  as  a 
revelation  from  God.  The  writings  once 
issued  were  no  longer  in  the  power  of 
their  authors,  but  were  wholly  subject  to 
the  decision  of  those  to  whom  they  came 
as  to  w^iat  position  they  should  occupy 

53 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

for  instruction  or  authority  over  the  minds 
of  men;  and  even  their  claim  to  divine 
inspiration  must  be  passed  upon  and  ap- 
proved by  men  before  they  could  have  a 
place  in  the  sacred  canon.  If  the  writers 
were  inspired,  they  who  composed  the 
sacred  canon  by  shifting  out  Hebrew  litera- 
ture musi  have  had  some  measun  of  the 
same  inspiration  to  enable  them  to  do 
their  work  wiselv'  and  well,  which  agrees 
with  our  general  proposition  that  inspira- 
tion is  a  permanent  gift  to  the  church, 
expressing  itself  at  different  times  accord- 
ing to  conditions,  circumstances,  and  char- 
acters. In  exercising  this  office  of 
classification  the  Hebrews  divided  their 
Scriptures  into  three  departments:  I.  The 
Tora.  II.  The  Prophets.  III.  The  writ- 
ings of  the  Hagiographa. 

I.  The  Tora  was  composed  of  the  five 
books  of  Moses.  In  early  Israel  the  regu- 
lation of  worship,  and  the  disposition  of 
public  affairs  as  well,  fell  largely  to  the 
priests.  They  made  decisions  and  com- 
municated the  divine  will  by  means  of  the 
lot,  the  ephod,  and  the  Urim  and  Thumim. 
The  sanctuary  became  the  seat  of  gov- 

54 


THE  ^L\KIXG  OF  THE  CAXOX 

ernment,  where  judgments  were  rendered 
by  those  appointed  to  act  for  the  people. 
These  proceedings  were  called  "inquiring 
of  the  Lord,"  and  the  decisions  rendered 
were  "the  statutes  of  the  Lord."  In  all 
these  proceedings  and  judgments  they  nat- 
urally went  back  to  the  law  of  Moses  and 
based  their  decisions  on  his  teachings, 
which  impHed  that  they  were  accepted  as 
divine  authority.  Thus,  naturally,  the 
books  of  Moses  came  to  be  recognized  as 
the  highest  authority  to  which  appeal 
could  be  made,  as  the  verv  Word  of  the 
Lord  to  Israel.  It  is  impossible  to  fix 
the  time  when  these  five  books  were 
thrown  together  as  the  recognized  embodi- 
ment of  Hebrew  law.  From  the  beginning 
of  the  organic  life  of  Israel  they  must  have 
held  such  a  position  in  the  pubhc  mind, 
but  in  the  economy  of  the  Hebrews  the 
more  formal  declaration  and  setting  apart 
did  not  occur  till  the  existence  of  other 
WTitings  claiming  such  recognition  made 
the  formal  act  necessary.  Naturally,  the 
rather  vague  reverence  in  which  the  writ- 
ings were  held  from  the  first  came  to 
definite  form  and  clearer  classification  and 

55 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

interpretation  under  the  attrition  of 
thought  and  the  practical  results  of  cen- 
turies of  conflict  and  agitation  in  de- 
veloping national  life  and  ecclesiastical 
polity.  As  all  the  great  world  forces  were 
thrown  into  this  seething  vat  with  these 
writings,  there  could  come  out  but  one 
result:  the  law  of  Moses  proved  itself  and 
won  its  position  in  the  thought  of  the 
world  as  "the  law  of  the  Lord,"  just  what 
it  was  declared  to  be  from  the  first. 

II.  The  Prophets.  Long  after  the 
*'Tora,"  or  law,  had  come  to  its  recogni- 
tion another  class  of  writings  claimed  rec- 
ognition as  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  sacred 
canon — the  Prophets.  In  this  classifica- 
tion the  Hebrews  included  Joshua,  First 
and  Second  Samuel,  First  and  Second 
Kings,  and  the  writings  of  the  later 
prophets.  Of  what  we  recognize  as  pro- 
phetic writings,  Amos  was  the  first  in 
order  of  time,  though  spoken  prophecy 
had  been  a  great  power  in  Israel  for  many 
centuries  before  the  time  of  Amos. 
Whether  these  prophets  wrote  their  mes- 
sages to  the  people,  or  delivered  them  in 
oral  form  and  had  them  taken  down  at 

56 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CANON 

the  time  or  afterward  by  some  scribe,  we 
do  not  know%  but  it  is  certain  that  some 
parts  of  them  at  least  were  written  by 
divine  direction.  Isaiah  in  tw^o  places  com- 
mands that  his  words  be  written  down  for 
the  instruction  of  future  ages.  A  hundred 
years  after  this  Jeremiah  is  particular  to 
have  Baruch  take  down  for  preservation 
the  words  that  fell  from  his  lips,  that  this 
record  might  take  the  place  of  one  that 
had  been  burned  in  the  fire  by  Jehoakim, 
king  of  Israel.  These  prophetical  books,  in 
contrast  with  the  books  of  the  law,  repre- 
sent the  conscience,  the  faith,  the  spiritual 
life,  the  worship,  and  the  ethical  righteous- 
ness of  the  people  of  Israel.  Here  we  find 
the  enthusiasm  and  the  heroism  of  faith, 
and  the  passionate  love  of  righteousness 
that  characterized  the  best  life  of  the 
Hebrews. 

III.  The  writings  of  Hagiography.  This 
third  division  is  composed  of  literature  later 
in  origin  than  the  law,  and  later  than  much 
of  what  is  classed  by  the  Hebrews  as 
prophetical.  These  writings  include  First 
and  Second  Chronicles,  Ezra,  Nehemiah, 
Ruth,   Job,   Psahns,   Proverbs,   Canticles, 

57 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

Ecclesiastes,  and  Lamentations.  They  con- 
tain practical  precepts,  proverbs,  rules  for 
holy  living,  dramatic  treatment  of  life, 
facts  of  history,  poetic  utterances  of  joy, 
love,  faith,  hope,  and  the  feelings  and 
aspirations  of  a  true  religious  life.  This 
classification  was  not  made  by  any  one 
age,  but  it  grew  as  the  literature  grew, 
and,  of  course,  could  not  be  completed  till 
the  last  book,  Malachi,  was  written. 

It  is  quite  possible  that  some  books  in- 
cluded at  one  age  were  thrown  out  or  lost 
in  another  age,  as  we  find  in  the  book  of 
Numbers  a  book  alluded  to  that  is  lost  to 
us.  Also  in  Joshua,  in  the  account  of  the 
sun  standing  still,  an  appeal  is  made  for 
confirmation  to  the  lost  book  of  Jasher, 
that  then  seemed  to  be  an  authority. 
What  the  selective  conscience  and  judg- 
ment of  the  Hebrew  people  chose  out  of 
their  literature  as  the  Word  of  the  Lord 
to  them  and  to  the  world  the  ages  have 
so  accepted  and  held  sacred.  These  three 
divisions  are  recognized  in  the  New  Testa- 
ament  as  they  were  held  by  the  Jewish 
people  generally. 

There  was  no  determining  conclave  or 
58 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CANON 

conference  that  decided  what  books  should 
go  into  the  Old  Testament  canon.  The 
religious  consciousness  of  the  Hebrew  peo- 
ple, instructed  and  guided  by  the  Holy 
Spirit,  after  a  fair  testing  of  the  books  in 
the  school  of  experience,  made  the  de- 
cision in  a  most  formal  way  by  accepting 
and  using  such  as  were  approved.  The 
religious  consciousness  of  the  race  has 
changed  about  as  little  as  has  the  con- 
sciousness of  pleasure  and  pain,  or  of  food 
and  drink,  and  its  decisions  in  Hebrew  his- 
tory were  practically  what  they  would  be 
now  if  acting  under  similar  conditions  and 
on  the  same  class  of  facts.  To  what  extent 
the  counsel  of  the  learned  may  have  in- 
fluenced the  common  mind  we  have  no 
means  of  knowing,  and  while  we  may 
suppose  it  to  have  been  considerable,  we 
have  no  reason  to  think  that  it  would  be 
out  of  harmony  with  that  religious  con- 
sciousness which  was  practically  the  same 
in  the  learned  and  the  unlearned.  Many 
books  were  bidding  high  for  recognition, 
and  there  had  to  be  careful  discrimination 
and  thorough  sifting  to  get  at  the  bottom 
truth  concerning  each  one.    If  a  book  held 

59 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

its  place  in  the  faith  of  God's  people 
through  the  varying  experiences  of  one, 
three,  or  five  hundred  years,  its  standing 
was  fixed.  There  never  was  any  other 
authority,  human  or  divine,  that  decided 
in  a  formal  way  what  books  should  go  into 
the  formation  of  the  Old  Testament;  yet 
there  could  be  no  higher  authority  than 
the  concurrent  testimony  of  thousands  of 
people  of  best  character  who  had  tested 
the  books  in  their  own  experiences.  Es- 
pecially does  this  appear  when  we  remem- 
ber that  these  experiences,  as  well  as  the 
books  themselves-,  '^ere  'mder  thr  Ci/Ulroj 
of  the  Holy  vSpirit. 


60 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  ]\L\KING  OF  THE  CANON 

(Continued) 

The  New  Testament 

A  new  literature  sprang  into  being  under 
the  powerful  appeal  made  to  the  human 
intellect  by  the  incidents  in  the  life  of  the 
Prophet  of  Nazareth,  and  much  more  by 
the  wonderful  circumstances  of  his  death 
and  resurrection.  No  life  in  history  com- 
pared with  his  in  thought-producing 
energy,  in  soul-arousing  power,  and  the 
demand  for  full  and  formal  statement  was 
universal  and  insistent.  Many  books  were 
written,  some  of  them  prejudiced,  one- 
sided, incomplete,  unsatisfactory.  The 
evangelist  Luke  makes  this  the  reason  for 
venturing  into  the  field  of  literature.  He 
admits  that  many  other  accounts  had  been 
written,  and  seems  to  imply  that  they  are 
not  satisfactory  to  his  mind,  so  he  writes  his 
own  account  to  the  honorable  gentleman 
to  whom  his  production  is  addressed,  that 

61 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

he  "may  know  the  certainty  of  the  things" 
wherein  he  had  been  instructed.  Even  the 
Gospels  of  Mark  and  Matthew  were  not 
entirely  satisfactory  to  Luk^,  for  they  left 
out  certain  important  teachings  of  the 
Master  that  he  thought  ought  to  be 
recorded. 

It  must  be  observed  that  the  literary 
movement  was  a  little  slow  in  starting,  the 
first  books  of  the  New  Testament  not 
appearing  till  twenty  years  after  the  Lord's 
ascension.  We  must  also  remember  that 
the  Christians  had  a  Bible  which  they 
highly  venerated,  and  which  seemed  suffi- 
cient for  their  needs.  Saint  Paul  preached 
in  the  synagogues,  using  the  Hebrew  Scrip- 
tures and  making  them  the  source  of  his 
material  in  expounding  the  kingdom  of 
God  as  set  up  by  Jesus  Christ.  In  Rome 
he  brought  together  a  great  company  in 
his  own  house,  "To  whom  he  expounded 
and  testified  the  kingdom  of  God,  per- 
suading them  concerning  Jesus,  both  out 
of  the  law  of  Moses,  and  out  of  the  proph- 
ets." These  early  Christians  were  so  ab- 
sorbed and  occupied  preaching  and  building 
the  Church  of  Christ  that  they  had  neither 

62 


THE  INIAKING  OF  THE  CANON 

time  nor  strength  for  writing.  We  never 
should  have  had  Saint  Paul's  great  epis- 
tles had  not  God  wisely  ordered  that  he 
should  be  held  in  prison  those  .long  years 
when  he  seemed  to  be  so  much  needed  in 
the  field,  that  he  might  have  quiet  and 
time  for  that  greatest  service  of  his  lif.; 
in  writing  those  wonderful  productions  that 
for  two  thousand  years  have  been  giving 
light  in  all  the  earth. 

The  early  Christian  writings  were  mostly 
produced  under  the  spur  of  some  imme- 
diate and  pressing  necessity.  They  were 
addressed  to  a  particular  locality,  to  single 
individuals,  or  in  response  to  appeals  for 
counsel.  There  is  no  indication  or  intima- 
tion that  any  one  of  the  writers  had  the 
faintest  idea  that  his  production  would 
finally  find  a  place  in  the  sacred  canon  and 
be  held  in  the  same  reverence  as  that 
which  had  attached  to  the  Hebrew  Scrip- 
tures. Greatly  as  they  were  appreciated 
by  the  Christians  of  the  time,  they  could 
not  be  held  in  full  sanctity  till  touched  by 
age  and  with  the  veneration  that  finally 
invested  the  names  of  those  who  had  seen 
the  Lord,  after  they  had  passed  into  the 

63 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

fellowship  of  the  church  triumphant.  There 
was  no  intimation  while  the  apostles  lived 
of  a  purpose  to  gather  together  the  writ- 
ings of  their  age  into  one  volume,  to  be  a 
part  of  the  sacred  canon.  That  thought 
was  a  later  development,  for  while  the 
apostles  lived,  their  public  recital  of  the 
events  worthy  of  mention  in  the  life  of 
our  Lord,  and  their  expositions  of  his 
teachings  would  have  precedence  over  any- 
thing they  might  write,  and  in  the  public 
mind  would  seem  to  render  unnecessary  a 
written  account.  Not  till  their  testimony 
was  completed  and  they  were  removed 
would  the  church  awake  to  the  apprehen- 
sion of  the  great  and  enduring  value  of 
what  they  had  written. 

The  simplicity  and  naturalness  of  that 
literature,  one  of  its  greatest  charms,  is 
evidence  that  it  came  from  the  heart  with 
a  single  purpose  and  a  single  aim,  with  no 
apprehension  of  the  position  to  be  assigned 
to  it  in  the  future.  Only  thus  could  the 
human  mind  be  absolutely  responsive  to 
the  motions  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  when  it 
was  wholly  absorbed  with  the  one  purpose 
of  conveying  the  truth  to  a  case  of  need. 

64 


THE  :making  of  the  canon 

These  writers  make  no  demand  that  their 
productions  shall  be  placed  in  the  same 
category  with  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  nor, 
indeed,  do  they  intimate  any  concern  about 
the  future  disposition  of  them.  They  left 
their  ministry  of  writing  as  their  ministry 
of  speech  to  the  providence  of  God,  not 
knowing  which  should  thrive,  "the  early  or 
the  late  sown,"  the  written  or  the  spoken 
word.  They  wrote  under  an  inspiration  to 
meet  a  present  need,  and  it  remained  for 
the  inspiring  Spirit  at  a  later  period  to  in- 
dicate to  Spirit-filled  men  the  real  char- 
acter and  enduring  worth  of  these  pro- 
ductions. The  apostolical  church  accepted 
them  as  authority  for  instruction  in  the 
facts  of  Christian  history  and  in  the  doc- 
trines of  Christian  faith,  but  they  could 
not  class  them  with  the  writings  of  Moses 
or  the  prophets  till  there  was  a  sufficient 
lapse  of  time  to  invest  them  with  the  air 
of  sacredness  that  naturally  falls  over  the 
things  of  the  past  when  we  are  removed 
at  a  sufficient  distance  from  them.  From 
considering  them  as  books  of  instruction  in 
the  facts  of  history,  the  principles  of  faith, 
and  the  practical  duties  of  religion,  it  was 

65 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

easy  to  rise  to  the  higher  conception  that 
they  were  divinely  inspired  and  that  they 
were  to  be  incorporated  with  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures  as  the  culmination  and  comple- 
tion of  their  revelation  for  the  permanent 
instruction  of  mankind. 

The  Spirit's  oflSce  as  inspirer  and  teacher 
of  the  church  did  not  cease  when  the  apos- 
tolical writings  were  finished.  He  was  the 
life  of  the  church  from  the  first,  the  source 
of  its  best  thought  and  noblest  achieve- 
ments, and  he  forever  remains  the  inspira- 
tion of  its  real  life  and  progress;  he  is  the 
conservator  of  its  aggressive  spiritual  power 
and  of  its  right  thinking.  The  promise  was 
that  he  should  abide  "forever"  with  the 
church,  and  without  him  the  church  would 
be  a  dry,  withered,  and  lifeless  thing.  We 
do  him  no  greater  dishonor  and  the  church 
no  greater  wrong  than  to  teach  that  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  active  only  in  great  epochs 
and  on  special  occasions.  Inspiration  is 
the  abiding  privilege,  the  great  need,  and 
the  only  adequate  equipment  of  the  church; 
the  whole  church  is  "the  body  of  Christ," 
instinct,  actuated,  and  alive  by  the  in- 
dwelling Divine  Spirit.    It  may  be  mani- 

66 


THE  IVIAKING  OF  THE  CANON 

fested  in  different  forms  and  degrees,  but 
he  is  always  present  in  the  church  that  is 
faithful  to  the  divine  covenant  of  grace 
in  Christ  Jesus.  God  did  not  lodge  the 
glory  and  responsibility  of  revelation  and 
redemption  with  any  age  or  nation,  but 
the  whole  race  of  every  age  is  held  to  its 
part  in  the  great  work  of  inbreathing  and 
communicating  life  and  truth  to  humanity 
through  Jesus  Christ.  The  apostles  wrote, 
and  their  writings  threw  such  a  glory  over 
their  age  that  we  sometimes  think  inspira- 
tion ended  with  them,  but  their  writings 
would  have  been  no  more  than  so  much 
wastepaper  had  not  the  Divine  Spirit 
moved  upon  the  minds  of  a  later  period  to 
discover  that  they  were  inspired  of  God 
and  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  sacred  canon. 
That  there  should  be  delay  and  differ- 
ences of  opinion  in  coming  to  an  agreement 
as  to  what  books  should  be  admitted  to  a 
place  in  the  sacred  canon  was  perfectly 
natural.  The  feeling  of  reverence  that  nat- 
urally arises  toward  a  writing  that  has 
come  down  from  a  preceding  generation, 
the  practical  experience  and  observed  facts 
concerning  the  effects  of  a  teaching,  and  the 

67 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

opportunity  for  gathering  up  all  the  facts 
concerning  the  production  of  a  document, 
as  well  as  the  opportunity  for  considering 
and  testing  the  claims  for  divine  inspira- 
tion, were  essential  in  the  formation  of  the 
canon.  If  a  very  popular,  influential,  or 
learned  minister  in  any  city,  or  a  great 
bishop  or  far-wandering  missionary  should 
write  a  treatise,  history,  or  doctrinal  epis- 
tle, there  would  be  local  or  party  interests 
that  would  clamor  for  giving  it  a  place  in 
the  canon,  and  it  would  not  be  wise  to  pass 
upon  it  till  a  second  and  more  impartial 
generation  had  arisen.  Saint  Paul's  writ- 
ings would  be  very  enthusiastically  received 
in  Gentile  cities  like  Corinth,  Ephesus,  and 
Rome,  but  they  would  meet  with  great 
opposition  and  disfavor  in  Jerusalem  and 
other  Jewish  cities.  The  epistle  of  Saint 
James,  on  the  other  hand,  would  be  hailed 
with  delight  in  Jerusalem  and  among  "The 
twelve  tribes  scattered  abroad,''  but  among 
the  peoples  instructed  in  Saint  Paul's  great 
Chris tology  and  in  his  doctrine  of  justifi- 
cation by  faith  it  would  not  be  acceptable, 
and  among  them  it  would  be  declared  un- 
worthy a  place  in  the  sacred  canon.    The 

68 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CANON 

personal  and  local  feeling  in  these  and 
other  cases  must  die  out  before  the  time  is 
ripe  for  deciding  what  writings  shall  make 
up  the  Bible. 

This  treatment  of  the  case  brings  into 
decided  prominence  the  human  element  in 
Bible-making.  But  we  are  to  remember 
that  in  not  one  of  these  ^Ti tings  is  there 
any  intimation  that  they  were  written  with 
a  view  to  their  having  a  place  in  the  Bible, 
or  that  they  would  be  read  by,  or  have  any 
influence  upon,  future  generations,  or  that 
the  WTiters  had  any  anticipation  that  a 
Bible  would  be  formed  out  of  the  writings 
of  that  age.  The  whole  history  and  method 
of  redemption  and  revelation  may  be 
summed  up  in  the  one  term,  "God-man." 
If  the  divine  element  is  transcendent,  the 
human  element  is  essential;  to  deny  either 
its  true  place  is  to  devitalize  and  destroy 
the  truth.  To  fail  to  recognize  the  human 
is  hardly  less  fatal  to  the  truth  than  to  fail 
to  recognize  the  divine  agency  in  revela- 
tion. The  two  work  as  a  composite  union 
for  a  result  that  could  not  be  reached  if 
either  were  lacking. 

Jesus  Christ  went  away  from  the  infant 
69 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

church  without  giving  any  direction  about 
writing  or  preparing  an  addition  or  supple- 
ment to  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  nor  did  he 
give  any  directions  about  the  organization 
or  pohty  of  his  church  so  soon  to  be  formed. 
Two  great  institutions  were  to  be  raised  up 
for  the  evangehzation  of  the  world:  a 
divine-human  book  to  furnish  material  for 
preaching,  and  a  divine-human  organiza- 
tion called  the  church.  The  inspiration  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  was  to  be  the  formative 
force  of  both,  but  that  force  was  to  be 
manifested  through  the  human  intelligence, 
in  terms  and  forms  to  be  apprehended  by 
the  human  understanding,  and  in  response 
to  human  need.  Both  developed  gradually 
and  unconsciously,  as  the  best  life  always 
does.  The  unfolding  was  slow,  and  it  was 
not  a  forecasting  of  the  future,  but  an 
effort  to  meet  the  need  of  the  present. 
Men  cared  very  little  for  written  docu- 
ments or  formal  institutions,  so  long  as  the 
living  witnesses  of  the  glory  of  the  Lord  on 
fire  with  a  holy  enthusiasm  kindled  by 
personal  contact  with  him  were  traveling 
everywhere  reciting  the  thrilling  facts  of 
their    own    observations    and    experiences 

70 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  CANON 

with  him.  There  was  little  appreciation 
of  or  demand  for  a  literature  so  long  as 
the  living  preacher  who  had  seen  the 
Lord  was  available.  The  church  had  need 
of  but  few  institutions  or  forms  so  long  as 
its  services  were  conducted  in  private 
houses  or  in  the  open  air,  and  prior  to  the 
rise  of  a  hymnology  and  liturgy.  It  was 
the  office  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  furnish  the 
truth,  the  organization,  and  the  means  for 
disseminating  and  preserving  it  in  re- 
sponse to  human  need  and  through  the 
organ  of  the  human  intelligence. 

These  two  lines  of  the  movement  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  developed  slowly,  but  when 
fairly  developed  they  became  the  norm  and 
suggestion  of  truth  for  all  after  times.  It 
has  been  the  habit  of  all  theological 
teachers  and  ecclesiastical  builders  to  go 
back  to  this  early  age  of  inspiration  for 
authority  in  their  teaching.  But  one  only 
needs  to  study  the  origin  of  the  diaconate 
in  the  sixth  chapter  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  or  the  subjectivity  of  the  writ- 
ings of  Saint  Paul,  to  see  how  large  the 
human  element  is  in  both  lines  of  the 
developing  kingdom  of  God.    There  could 

71 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

have  been  in  all  this  process  of  develop- 
ment no  thought  of  producing  and  project- 
ing into  the  future  a  literature  to  rule  the 
thought  of  coming  ages,  for  that  early 
church  was  thoroughly  obsessed  with  the 
idea  that  Christ  would  return  during  the 
lifetime  of  that  generation  and  take  into 
his  own  hands  the  reins  of  government. 


n 


CHAPTER  YL 

THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  BECOMING 
HOLY  SCRIPTURE 

The  early  New  Testament  was  a  flame 
of  religious  enthusiasm.  Four  events  like 
the  crucifixion,  the  resurrection,  the  ascen- 
sion, and  Pentecost  occurring  in  a  period 
of  fifty  days,  and  the  marvelous  initial  suc- 
cesses of  the  church,  are  suflScient  explana- 
tion and  justification  of  it.  That  this 
enthusiasm  ran  into  excesses  of  fanaticism 
along  some  lines  was  indicated  by  the 
disastrous  attempt  at  community  of  goods, 
the  folly  of  which  soon  became  apparent. 
In  this  great  movement  that  permeated  all 
classes  the  living  preacher  who  could  re- 
port upon  these  great  events  as  an  eye- 
witness or  participator  in  them  was  the 
chief  agent  and  the  greatest  force.  The 
incidents  of  the  Lord's  life,  death,  resur- 
rection, and  ascension,  with  such  explana- 
tions as  might  be  given,  would  be  repeated 
over  and  over  to  entranced  audiences  that 
would  never  tire  of  hearing  the  wonderful 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

story,  and  to  whom  the  facts  would  seem  to 
justify  the  most  extravagant  expectations 
for  the  future.  There  was,  then,  no  need 
for  written  documents,  nor  was  the  temper 
of  mind  such  as  to  awaken  any  desire  for 
them.  The  oral  teacher  who  could  recite 
and  expound  the  events  that  had  just 
occurred  with  thrilling  effect  was  all  the 
church  then  wanted. 

There  was  no  apprehension  of  need  for 
written  documents  in  the  future,  for  in  this 
great  enthusiasm  of  the  new  life  the  church 
had  become  thoroughly  obsessed  with  the 
idea  that  the  Lord  would  soon  return,  over- 
throw his  enemies,  take  possession  of  the 
kingdom,  and  carry  his  believing  children 
home  to  heaven.  There  would,  therefore, 
be  no  need  even  for  the  Hebrew  Bible  very 
long,  and  certainly  no  need  for  any  addi- 
tion to  it.  They  had  not  carefully  studied 
the  sayings  of  the  Master  about  his  second 
coming,  and  in  their  eager  enthusiasm  had 
jumbled  them  all  together  in  one  mass,  as 
referring  to  one  event.  They  did  not  dis- 
cern that  some  of  his  utterances  referred  to 
his  resurrection,  which  was  a  real  "coming 
again"  after  having  gone  away,  some  to 

74 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

the  day  of  Pentecost,  which  gave  a  fulfill- 
ment to  his  saying  that,  "There  be  some 
of  them  that  stand  here,  which  shall  not 
taste  of  death,  till  they  see  the.  kingdom  of 
God  come  with  power,"  but  they  seemed 
to  confound  all  his  sayings  on  the  subject 
with  the  last  great  event,  "When  the  Son 
of  man  shall  come  in  his  glory,  and  all  the 
holy  angels  with  him,"  to  judge  the  world. 
They  fully  expected  him  to  come  during 
their  lifetime  and  that  they  would  be  per- 
mitted to  share  in  the  glory  of  his  triumph 
over  the  world. 

With  such  an  expectation  of  the  con- 
summation of  all  things  so  soon,  there 
could  be  no  thought  of  forming  a  new 
Bible,  or  an  enlargement  of  the  old  by  the 
addition  of  Christian  writings. 

This  enthusiasm  that  was  burning  bright 
with  an  aggressive  flame  was  constantly 
fed  with  new  fuel  in  the  form  of  wonderful 
miracles,  interpositions,  and  deliverances 
hardly  less  astonishing  and  assuring  than 
the  great  redemptive  events  themselves. 
The  witnesses  who  were  testifying  for  their 
Lord,  and  the  apostles  who  were  preaching 
his  gospel,  with  the  great  body  of  believers, 

75 


THE  IVIAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

accepted  these  miraculous  incidents  as  a 
divine  attestation  of  the  correctness  of 
their  teachings,  and  this  added  inconceiv- 
ably to  their  influence  with  the  people. 
The  gift  of  tongues  and  other  miraculous 
gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit  continued  in  the 
church  for  many  years,  feeding  the  flame 
of  its  enthusiasm.  This  was  true  as  late 
as  the  writing  of  Saint  Paul's  First  Epistle 
to  the  Corinthians,  as  anyone  may  see  by 
reading  the  fourteenth  chapter,  a  work  that 
was  not  written  till  about  thirty  years 
after  Pentecost.  Those  years  constituted 
the  period  of  dynamics  in  the  church, 
when  the  miraculous  powers  of  the  Spirit 
of  God  were  employed  to  propel  the  new 
church  in  its  victorious  march  among  the 
nations. 

Not  until  twenty  years  had  passed  after 
the  resurrection  of  the  Lord  did  anyone 
think  it  worth  while  to  put  anything  down 
in  writing.  By  that  time  the  mind  of  the 
church  had  cooled  a  little,  its  thinking  had 
been  clarified  by  experience  and  broaden- 
ing knowledge,  and  the  disappointment  in 
the  expected  immediate  reappearance  of 
the  Lord  aided  the  coming  in  of  a  broader 

76 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

outlook  upon  the  needs  and  possibilities 
of  the  church.  Then  as  the  early  witnesses 
were  passing  away  by  death,  their  number 
becoming  fewer  and  the  number  of  con- 
gregations becoming  greater,  it  became  in- 
creasingly difficult  to  secure  a  living  teacher 
who  had  personal  knowledge  of  the  events 
of  which  they  wished  to  hear.  Many  of 
the  most  distinguished  ministers  had  gone 
into  foreign  parts  on  missionary  tours,  or 
were  locked  up  in  prisons.  Then  a  written 
communication  from  these  absent  leaders 
of  the  church,  many  of  whom  had  endured 
untold  sufferings  and  hardships  that  awak- 
ened great  sympathy  for  them  among  the 
people,  would  be  hailed  with  great  joy, 
and  reading  them  to  the  congregations 
would  produce  a  profound  religious  sensa- 
tion. At  first  there  could  have  been  no 
thought  with  the  writers  or  with  those  to 
whom  these  productions  were  sent  that 
they  would  ever  take  their  place  by  the 
side  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  and  be 
held  sacred  and  authoritative,  as  they  were. 
But  when  the  living  witnesses  had  all 
passed  away,  the  written  testimonies  which 
they  had  left  took  on  a  new  importance, 

77 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

and  then  arose  the  task  of  discriminating 
and  deciding  which  were  to  be  regarded  as 
divinely  inspired  and  authoritative.  We 
can  no  more  beHeve  that  this  selection  was 
left  to  human  caprice  and  fallible  judg- 
ment than  that  the  writing  itself,  or  the 
forming  of  the  infant  church  polity  was  the 
product  of  the  unaided  human  mind.  It 
was  the  office  and  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
to  instruct  and  guide  the  church,  and  he 
could  best  do  this  by  giving  it  a  divinely 
inspired  literature  that  should  feed  its  in- 
telligence and  inspire  its  faith. 

Fortunately,  we  have  more  light  on  the 
formation  of  the  Christian  Bible  than  we 
have  upon  the  early  stages  of  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures.  The  literary  impulse  had  been 
greatly  intensified  and  developed,  with  a 
much  broader  outlook  and  keener  interest 
in  all  world  questions.  The  new  faith  had 
its  roots  in  and  received  contributions  from 
all  the  great  world  centers,  and  it  left 
tracks  on  the  sands  everywhere  by  which 
its  movements  can  now  be  traced  and 
verified.  The  growth  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  under  our  eyes,  and  we  can  see 
the  process  as  it  slowly  develops. 

78 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

Let  us  take  our  stand  in  one  of  the 
Christian  congregations  of  Rome,  the  first 
Sabbath  after  Saint  Paul  was  beheaded 
there,  and  watch  the  feeHng  of  reader  and 
congregation  as  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans 
is  read.  There  would  be  an  interest,  en- 
thusiasm, and  recognition  of  its  divine 
quality  such  as  had  never  been  before,  and 
every  one  would  be  ready  to  acclaim  it  as 
the  very  word  of  God  through  the  blessed 
Paul.  Or,  if  we  should  visit  one  of  the 
colonies  of  Jews  settled  up  on  the  banks 
of  the  Nile,  where  the  gospel  of  Christ  had 
been  accepted,  and  chance  to  be  in  one  of 
their  congregations  just  after  they  had  re- 
ceived news  of  the  death  of  Saint  James, 
bishop  of  Jerusalem,  and  they  should  bring 
out  and  read  his  epistle  addressed  to  "the 
twelve  tribes  scattered  abroad,"  we  would 
hear  them  exclaiming  in  their  spiritual  rap- 
ture: "It  is  nothing  less  than  the  voice  of 
God!  There  is  nothing  in  the  writings  of 
Moses  superior  to  it."  And  so  if  we  would 
follow  every  book  of  the  New  Testament 
through  its  early  experiences,  we  should 
find  some  clear  and  decided  recognition  of 
its  quality  that  gradually  won  its  way  by 

79 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

inherent  merit,   till  it   was  crowned  and 
throned  as  Holy  Scripture. 

The  records  are  wonderfully  satisfying  to 
the  most  critical  mind.  The  period  of  the 
oral  gospel  was  drawing  to  its  close.  The 
story  of  eyewitnesses  had  been  told  in  all 
the  great  world  centers,  with  about  such 
variations  of  details  as  we  find  in  the  writ- 
ten Gospels.  No  doubt  the  differences  be- 
tween Saint  Paul,  Saint  James,  Saint  Peter, 
and  Saint  John  had  been  noted  and  dis- 
cussed, much  as  they  have  by  Christian 
scholars  of  all  the  ages.  Every  city  would 
have  its  favorite  apostle.  Gospel,  or  Epistle, 
and  one  would  say,  *T  am  for  Paul,  or  I  am 
for  Cephas,  or  I  for  Apollos,  or  I  for 
Christ."  Some  of  these  apostles  preached 
at  one  place  what  they  had  not  at  another 
as  the  result  of  growing  knowledge.  As  in 
the  case  of  the  eloquent  Apollos,  he  had 
been  preaching  with  great  power  in  a  num- 
ber of  cities,  "knowing  only  the  baptism  of 
John,"  but  when  more  fully  instructed  he 
added  the  great  distinctively  Christian 
truths  to  his  preaching,  and  such  changes 
in  the  preachers  themselves  must  have 
produced  no  little  unrest  and  discussion 

80 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

among  the  people.  All  things  were  in  a 
state  of  flux,  tending  slowly  toward  a 
settled  and  fixed  condition  when  the  un- 
changing written  productions  of  the  apos- 
tles should  be  accepted  as  inspired  of  God 
for  final  authority. 

We  must  not  overlook  the  fact  that  there 
were  great  numbers  of  what  have  been 
called  "logia,"  or  written  scraps  of  informa- 
tion about  the  Christ.  They  were  incom- 
plete, mixed  with  legends,  or  trivial  and 
personal  matters  that  would  render  them 
unsuitable  for  public  reading  or  for  a  place 
in  the  Bible.  A  gentleman  in  Jerusalem  on 
business  could  not  fail  to  WTite  home  some 
account  of  a  strange  prophet  that  had 
visited  the  city,  and  he  would  give  a  report 
of  his  sayings  and  doings.  A  gentleman 
from  Alexandria  traveling  through  Pales- 
tine would  happen  at  Nain  the  day  the 
widow's  son  was  raised  to  life.  He  would 
write  home  an  account  of  this  and  of  other 
wonderful  things  he  had  seen  and  heard. 
Some  poor  man  rescued  from  a  life  of  pain 
and  weakness  by  the  touch  of  Jesus  would 
spend  part  of  his  new  strength  in  writing 
to  his  distant  mother  an  account  of  this, 

81 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

and  of  many  other  blessed  things  done  by 
the  wonderful  Prophet  of  Nazareth.  Any- 
one can  see  that  there  must  have  been  a 
great  flood  of  these  "logia"  distributed 
everywhere,  but  such  an  admixture  of  the 
impossible,  the  absurd,  the  legendary,  the 
fanciful,  the  fanatical,  and  the  deliberately 
false  that  they  had  to  be  used  with  great 
care.  Many  scholars  suppose  that  they 
were  the  storehouse  of  material  on  which 
the  writers  of  the  New  Testament  drew 
largely  for  their  material.  But  no  man 
knows  anything  about  that.  Some  think 
they  can  see  marks  of  it  in  New  Testament 
writings;  others  think  they  are  imaginary. 
It  certainly  would  derogate  nothing  from 
the  inspiration  of  a  production  to  show 
that  the  author  derived  his  information 
from  the  oral  or  written  communication  of 
another,  for  the  inspiration  of  the  author 
would  seem  to  verify  the  correctness  of  the 
information.  It  is  a  matter  where  there  is 
no  room  and  no  need  for  dogmatism;  a 
man  may  conjecture  what  he  pleases  about 
the  sources  of  information  so  long  as  he 
allows  the  imprimatui  of  inspiration.  Out 
of  ctii  this  melange  of  literature  it  was  im- 

82 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

peratlve  that  the  church  for  its  peace  and 
purity  of  doctrine  and  teaching  should 
select  what  would  be  an  authoritative  stan- 
dard of  faith  and  practice.  To  this  we  now 
come. 

Passing  by  some  others,  the  first  w^itness 
we  care  to  bring  forward  is  Papias,  bishop 
of  Hierapolis,  in  Phrygia.  He  was  born 
twenty  years  before  the  death  of  Saint 
John,  lived  in  Hierapolis,  where  he  met 
the  daughters  of  Philip  the  evangelist,  who 
w^ere  prophetesses  in  the  days  of  Saint 
Paul  when  he  was  entertained  for  a  long 
time  at  their  father's  house.  He  numbered 
among  his  friends  the  great  Poly  carp,  and 
others  who  had  been  associated  with  the 
twelve.  He  was  a  very  earnest  student  of 
all  the  records  upon  which  he  could  lay 
his  hands  that  gave  any  information  about 
the  sayings  or  doings  of  Jesus  Christ.  He 
speaks  of  two  Johns,  calling  one,  evidently 
the  Saint  John  of  the  Gospels,  "the  elder." 
He  says,  "John  the  elder  told  Papias  that 
Matthew  wrote  the  Logia,"  that  is,  the 
sayings  of  Jesus  in  Hebrew.  "And  this 
too,  the  elder  said,  Mark,  the  interpreter 
of  Peter,  wrote  down  accurately,  yet  not 

83 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

in  order,  all  that  he  (Peter)  told  as  said  or 
done  by  Christ.  For  he  (Mark)  himself 
did  not  hear  the  Lord  nor  was  a  disciple  of 
his,  but — of  Peter,  who  used  to  give 
teachings  to  suit  the  immediate  wants,  but 
not  as  a  connected  narrative,  so  that  Mark 
made  no  mistake.  For  he  took  care  of  one 
thing,  not  to  leave  out  anything  he  heard 
nor  give  anything  in  a  wrong  way." 

The  first  Gospel  written  was  this  by 
Saint  Mark,  the  material  for  which  was 
derived  from  the  public  addresses  of  Saint 
Peter  and  from  private  interviews  with 
him.  Soon  after  followed  the  Gospel  by 
Matthew,  then  that  by  Luke,  and  about 
twenty -five  years  after  came  the  Gospel  of 
John.  But  all  these  came  after  the  death 
of  Saint  Paul,  so  that  in  none  of  his  Epistles 
is  there  mention  of  any  of  these  Gospels,  or 
of  any  other  Christian  writings  recognized 
as  scripture.  We  are  just  now  at  that 
period  when  this  recognition  began  slowly 
to  appear.  It  was  not  by  any  miracle, 
prophet's  dictum,  or  decree  of  council  or 
conference,  but  by  the  constant  growing 
use  of  these  Christian  writings  in  public 
worship  and  for  private  instruction  in  the 

84 


THE  NEW  TESTAIVIENT 

things  of  God.  A  book  that  was  found 
worthy  to  be  read  in  public  service  with 
increasing  appreciation  grew  constantly  to- 
ward a  place  in  the  sacred  volume.  The 
Holy  r^piril  in  the  church  recognized  the 
Iloh-  Spirit  in  the  Word,  and  that  was  the 
determining  and  guiding  force. 

The  postapostolic  age  begins  about  A.  D. 
100  with  a  letter  written  from  the  Church 
of  Christ  in  Rome  to  the  church  in  Corinth, 
that  marks  another  stage  in  the  rising  tide 
of  Christian  literature.  It  is  believed  by 
scholars  to  have  been  written  by  Clement 
of  Rome,  and  while  it  does  not  quote 
formally  from  the  Gospels  as  recognized 
scripture,  it  does  use  much  of  the  language 
of  the  Gospels  in  references  that  show  he 
was  familiar  with  them  and  held  them  in 
high  regard  as  sources  of  Christian  truth. 
Irenseus  says  of  him,  ''Clement  had  seen 
the  blessed  apostles  and  conversed  with 
them,  and  had  the  preaching  of  the  blessed 
apostles  still  sounding  in  his  ears." 

Another  most  distinguished  witness 
comes  onto  the  stand  from  the  sacred  city 
of  Antioch,  the  most  important  city  in 
early    Christian    history    after   Jerusalem. 

85^ 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

Ignatius  was  the  bishop  there  at  the  end 
of  the  first  century.  He  was  put  to  death 
for  his  faith  early  in  the  second  century, 
and  on  his  way  to  martyrdom  at  Rome  he 
wrote  seven  letters,  to  the  Ephesians,  the 
Magnesians,  the  Trallians,  the  Romans, 
the  Philadelphians,  the  Smyrnseans,  and  to 
Polycarp,  the  bishop  of  Smyrna.  In  all 
these  letters  he  shows  great  familiarity 
with  our  New  Testament.  He  does  not 
refer  to  its  teachings  as  equal  in  authority 
with  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  but  treats  it 
with  a  respect  verging  toward  such  a 
recognition.  In  the  city  of  Antioch  he 
stood  in  the  very  places  made  sacred  by 
Paul,  Barnabas,  Peter,  and  all  the  great 
Christian  leaders,  and  was  thoroughly  fa- 
miliar with  their  works  and  writings.  He 
is  therefore  an  important  witness  for  the 
existence  and  growing  reverence  for  the 
writings  of  the  New  Testament  as  we  now 
have  it. 

A  great  character  now  comes  before  us 
to  give  his  testimony  in  the  person  of 
Pol^xarp.  There  is  no  more  fragrant  name 
in  Christian  history,  no  one  more  revered 
for  his  services  while  living  and  for  his 

86 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

steadfast  faith  when  dying  as  a  martyr. 
The  readers  of  church  history  will  remem- 
ber his  noble  answer  to  the  governor  when 
he  stood  at  the  stake  ready  for  them  to 
kindle  the  jflames.  The  governor  tried  to 
evade  executing  him,  and  he  cried  at  the 
last:  "Swear,  and  I  release  you.  Revile 
Christ."  Polycarp  replied:  "Eighty  and 
six  years  do  I  serve  him,  and  he  has  never 
done  me  wrong.  And  how  can  I  blaspheme 
my  King  that  saved  me.^"  He  wrote  a 
letter  to  the  Philippians,  the  people  to 
whom  one  of  Paul's  Epistles  was  written. 
That  letter  is  full  of  the  New  Testament, 
used  as  though  he  thought  it  most  au- 
thoritative and  useful  to  them,  at  least 
most  persuasive  and  influential  in  leading 
them  to  that  which  was  for  their  greatest 
good.  He  does  not  speak  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament as  Bible,  but  he  uses  it  with  a 
respect  that  shows  that  it  had  come  near 
to  that  in  his  own  thought. 

Only  a  few  years  ago  "The  Teaching  of 
the  Apostles"  was  discovered  and  given  to 
the  Christian  world.  It  dates  from  about 
120,  though  parts  of  it  are  much  older. 
It  corroborates  the  witnesses  already  heard 

87 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

in  these  pages  in  support  of  the  position 
that  the  New  Testament  as  we  now  have  it 
was  in  general  use,  with  a  degree  of  respect 
and  reverence,  not  equal  to  but  approach- 
ing the  prevailing  feeling  toward  the  He- 
brew Scriptures.  All  through  it  there  is  a 
free  use  of  the  Gospels,  of  all  the  Epistles 
of  Paul  and  of  other  writers.  It  is,  of 
course,  not  so  circumstantial  and  satisfac- 
tory to  us  as  it  would  have  been  if  the 
author  had  written  with  an  eye  to  the  fact 
that  his  w^ork  would  pass  under  the  critical 
eye  of  the  twentieth  century.  He  wrote  for 
the  good  of  those  whom  he  was  addressing, 
without  technical  care,  in  an  easy,  flowing 
style,  with  great  simplicity  and  sincerity. 

We  might  add  much  more  testimony  of 
the  same  kind  as  that  already  given,  from 
the  letter  of  Barnabas,  from  Valentinus, 
Hermas,  and  many  others,  but  those  who 
desire  to  follow  the  subject  further  will 
know  where  to  find  the  literature  for  it. 
We  now  come  to  a  later  period  and  higher 
development  of  New  Testament  influence. 
Moving  forward  fifty  years,  we  come  to  the 
great  Roman  churchman,  Justin  Martyr. 
We  pause  with  him  only  long  enough  to  say 

88 


THE  NEW  TESTAINIENT 

that  he  reports  that  about  forty  years 
after  Saint  John's  death  the  Gospels  are 
being  regularly  read  along  with  the  Old 
Testament,  sometimes  preceding  it  as  of 
greater  importance.  This  marks  a  de- 
cided advance  in  the  use  of  the  New 
Testament. 

A  little  later  we  have  a  conclusive  proof 
of  the  prominence  the  New  Testament  had 
secured  in  the  life  of  the  church  by  the 
publication  of  Tation's  Diatessaron,  or  the 
Book  of  the  Four.  This  is  proof  that  the 
four  Gospels  were  in  use,  and  in  such 
general  use  as  to  justify  the  labor  and 
expense  of  such  a  publication. 

We  have  a  mutilated  fragment  of  a  most 
important  old  document  discovered  a  few 
years  ago  in  the  Ambrosian  Library  of 
Milan.  It  is  called  the  Muratorian  Frag- 
ment. It  dates  from  about  170,  and  con- 
tains the  oldest  known  list  of  the  books  of 
the  New  Testament.  It  begins  with  the 
Gospel  of  Saint  Luke,  all  above  that  being 
torn  off;  the  lost  part  almost  certainly 
contained  the  names  of  Matthew  and 
Mark.  Following  Saint  Luke  is  the  Gos- 
pel by  John,  then  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 

89 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

after  that  the  thirteen  epistles  of  Saint 
Paul.  The  Epistle  of  Jude,  two  epistles  of 
John,  the  Revelation  of  John,  and  the 
Revelation  of  Peter,  are  also  named.  The 
Epistle  of  James,  First  and  Second  Peter, 
and  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  were 
omitted,  as  these  probably  were  not  gen- 
erally known  in  the  west  till  a  later  period. 
We  now  turn  to  another  very  important 
witness  in  the  person  of  Irenaeus,  bishop  of 
Lyons  in  Gaul.  He  was  a  native  of  Asia 
Minor,  and  thus  became  one  of  the  living 
bonds  between  the  east  and  the  west, 
having  been  in  Rome,  and  finally  bishop 
of  Lyons.  He  saw  Polyoarp  in  his  boy- 
hood and  had  unusual  opportunities  for 
knowing  the  inner  life  of  the  church,  its 
recognized  literature,  and  the  respect  in 
which  its  various  writings  were  held.  He 
speaks  of  the  four  Gospels,  and  says,  "The 
Holy  Spirit  said  by  Matthew,"  showing 
that  the  church  then  held  the  inspiration 
of  the  Gospels.  He  also  mentions  as 
"scripture"  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
twelve  epistles  of  Saint  Paul  (omitting 
Philemon),  the  Revelation  of  Saint  John, 
also  First  John,  First  Peter,  and  Hebrews. 

90 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

In  reciting  how  he  used  to  see  the  blessed 
Polycarp  when  an  old  man  sit  and  repeat 
what  he  had  heard  John  and  other  eye- 
witnesses say  about  the  works  and  words 
of  the  Lord,  he  uses  this  significant  lan- 
guage, "And  all  that  he  said  was  in  strict 
agreement  with  the  Scriptures."  This 
shows  that  the  New  Testament  books  were 
then  regarded  as  scripture. 

From  Irenaeus  we  return  east  again  to 
hear  from  Clement  of  Alexandria,  one  of 
the  great  churchmen  of  that  age.  In 
speaking  of  one  of  the  sayings  of  Jesus, 
he  says,  "We  have  not  this  saying  in  the 
four  Gospels  which  have  been  handed  down 
to  us;  it  is  to  be  found  in  the  Gospel  to  the 
Egyptians."  He  quotes  from  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles,  twelve  epistles  of  Saint  Paul 
(omitting  Philemon),  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  (which  he  says  is  by  Saint  Paul), 
First  John,  First  Peter,  Jude,  and  the 
Revelation  of  Saint  John.  He  shows  that 
the  line  of  separation  was  not  yet  sharply 
drawn,  as  do  some  of  these  other  witnesses 
I  have  quoted,  by  referring  to  other  writ- 
ings as  inspired  that  were  later  rejected, 
as  the  epistles  of  Clement  and  Barnabas, 

91 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

the  Revelation  of  Peter  and  the  Shep- 
herd. 

From  Alexandria  we  pass  west  on  the 
continent  of  Africa  to  historic  old  Carthage 
to  hear  from  one  of  the  greatest  minds  of 
that  age,  Tertullian.  He  was  a  sturdy, 
stirring  man  of  wonderful  power  and  in- 
fluence. He  complains  of  a  clumsy  trans- 
lation of  the  New  Testament  into  Latin, 
now  in  use  in  his  churches,  that  he  does 
not  like.  This  Latin  Testament,  as  his 
quotations  show,  contained  all  the  books 
of  our  present  New  Testament  except  the 
Epistle  of  James,  Second  Peter,  and  He- 
brews. 

This  brief  outline  of  the  testimony  of 
the  postapostolic  church  brings  us  down 
to  the  year  200.  We  have  not  found,  nor 
can  there  be  found,  any  decree  or  formal 
action  setting  apart  a  certain  number  of 
books  to  be  accepted  as  inspired  and  au- 
thoritative in  the  church.  But  we  have 
found  a  growing  use  in  the  churches,  and 
an  increasing  reverence  for  certain  books 
held  to  be  inspired  of  God,  with  slight 
variations  in  the  books  included  in  the 
lists  in  various  cities.     In  a  few  of  the 

92 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

churches  some  of  the  books  now  in  the 
canon  were  not  received,  such  as  the 
Epistles  of  James,  Second  Peter,  Second 
and  Third  John,  Jude,  Hebrews,  and  Rev- 
ehxtion.  In  some  of  the  churches  certain 
books  now  considered  apocryphal  were 
accepted,  as  the  epistles  of  Clement,  Bar- 
nabas, Hermas,  and  the  Revelation  of 
Peter  and  the  Shepherd.  It  is  slow  yet 
substantial  progress  for  one  hundred  and 
forty  years  of  Christian  development. 

We  now  pass  over  a  hundred  years  and 
come  to  the  period  of  persecution  under 
the  Emperor  Diocletian.  The  lives  of 
Christians  were  sacrificed,  their  Scriptures 
burned,  and  their  assemblies  broken  up. 
The  eagerness  of  the  persecutors  to  destroy 
the  Scriptures  is  one  of  the  best  evidences 
of  the  esteem  in  which  they  were  held  by 
the  church.  The  great  church  historian, 
Eusebius,  who  had  seen  the  Scriptures 
burned  in  the  market  place  by  the  perse- 
cutors, is  our  first  witness.  In  331  Con- 
stantine,  the  Christian  emperor,  is  on  the 
throne,  and  he  sends  to  Eusebius  in  Jeru- 
salem an  order  for  "Fifty  copies  of  the  Di- 
vine Scriptures  on  prepared  skins,  by  skilled 

93 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

scribes."  In  fulfilling  this  order  for  "the 
Divine  Scriptures"  Eusebius  divided  the 
writings  which  were  claimed  to  be  scrip- 
ture into  three  classes,  as  follows: 

I.  The  accepted  books,  which  include  the 
New  Testament  as  we  have  it  with  the 
exception  of  these  seven  books,  the  Epistles 
of  James,  Jude,  Hebrews,  Second  Peter, 
Second  and  Third  John,  and  Revelation. 

II.  The  controverted  books,  that  is, 
books  received  in  some  places  and  not  in 
others.  This  list  is  composed  of  the  seven 
books  omitted  in  the  first  list. 

f'^  III.  The  spurious  books,  in  which  he 
names  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas,  and  the 
Shepherd  of  Her  mas. 

This  testimony  substantiates  two  points : 
that  the  term  "Divine  Scriptures"  was  used 
by  Constantine  and  accepted  by  Eusebius 
as  applying  to  the  New  Testament,  and 
that  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  in 
the  opinion  of  Eusebius  were  substantially 
as  we  have  them.  It  was  the  opinion  of 
Tischendorf — and  many  scholars  agree 
with  him — that  the  manuscript  which  he 
discovered  in  the  Convent  of  Saint  Cath- 
arine on  Mount  Sinai,  and  the  manuscript 

94 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT 

in  the  Vatican  Library  in  Rome,  were  of 
this  number  of  fifty  prepared  by  Eusebius. 

Thirty  years  after  this  the  great  Athana- 
sius  in  Alexandria,  who  has  the  credit  of 
having  saved  the  church  from  heresy,  pre- 
pares his  annual  letter  to  the  clergy  to  be 
read  by  them  in  the  churches.  In  that 
letter  he  gives  a  list  of  the  accepted  books 
of  the  Bible,  and  after  completing  the  Old 
Testament  he  comes  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  gives  as  his  list  exactly  the 
books  which  we  now  have  in  the  New 
Testament. 

We  now  go  back  to  the  church  at  Rome 
for  our  last  word  of  testimony  on  this  sub- 
ject. In  the  year  383,  at  the  request  of 
Pope  Damascus,  the  great  scholar  Jerome 
began  the  revision  of  the  old  Latin  Testa- 
ment. This  was  the  beginning  of  his  great 
work,  the  Vulgate  Bible,  which  for  one 
thousand  years  was  the  Bible  of  all  Europe. 
In  this  revision  the  books  he  gives  are 
exactly  the  books  we  have  now  in  the 
New  Testament. 

This  practically  completes  the  discussion 
of  this  subject  in  the  present  treatment  of 
it.     Much  fuller  and  very  convincing  evi- 

95 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

dence  might  have  been  given  if  we  had  not 
feared  overtaxing  of  the  reader's  patience. 
It  will  be  observed  that  there  is  here  no 
mention  about  a  determination  of  the  books 
that  should  belong  to  the  New  Testament 
by  any  council,  conference,  or  other  eccle- 
siastical assembly  of  the  church.  This  is 
for  the  simple  and  sufficient  reason  that 
there  never  was  any  such  action.  The 
common  spiritual  consciousness  of  the 
church  settled  that  question  through  three 
hundred  years  of  development,  and  from 
that  decision  there  is  no  appeal.  In  the 
sense  in  which  the  word  used  to  be  em- 
ployed, there  is  not,  and  there  never  was, 
a  canon  of  the  New  Testament.  We  use 
the  word  only  in  an  accommodated  sense. 


96 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  APOCRYPHA 

There  can  be  no  fair  and  thorough  dis- 
cussion of  the  making  of  the  Bible  that 
does  not  take  account  of  the  Apocrypha, 
which  has  been  held,  and  is  still  held  by 
many,  as  a  true  and  legitimate  part  of 
Holy  Scripture.  The  Bible  is  not  the 
clear-cut  product  of  a  recognized  authority, 
the  exact  boundaries  of  which  may  be  de- 
termined with  mathematical  accuracy;  but 
it  is,  rather,  a  clear  stream  flowing  through 
muddy  waters,  the  margins  of  which  are 
bordered  with  a  mixed  condition  that  shade 
off  into  that  with  which  it  has  nothing  in 
common.  The  literary  impulse  that  grew 
stronger  as  the  life  of  the  race  deepened 
and  broadened,  under  the  stimulating  in- 
fluence of  the  great  truths  of  revelation, 
was  very  active  in  the  stirring  period  be- 
tween Malachi  and  the  coming  of  our 
Lord.  Some  of  the  productions  of  that 
period  seem  quite  up  to  the  plane  of 
inspiration  in  moral  and  spiritual  elevation, 
while  others  are  trivial  and  worthless.     In 

97 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

drawing  the  line  between  inspired  and  un- 
inspired, both  in  the  Old  and  in  the  New 
Testament,  some  books  were  very  near  the 
line  on  both  sides,  some  barely  winning,  and 
others  as  narrowly  failing  of  recognition. 

The  books  of  the  Apocrj^pha  have  held 
a  semisacred  position  through  all  history. 
They  have  been  held  by  many  as  equal  in 
inspiration  and  authority  to  the  other 
books  of  the  Old  Testament,  but  a  still 
larger  number  have  refused  to  concede  this 
much  to  them,  while  holding  them  of  great 
value  for  instruction  in  the  history  of 
Israel  and  for  edification.  They  are  per- 
meated with  the  devotional  spirit  that 
characterizes  all  Hebrew  literature,  they 
maintain  the  high  ethical  standard  set  up 
in  the  Old  Testament,  and  have  the  same 
insistence  upon  supreme  loyalty  to  Jehovah, 
They  seem  to  be  the  prg^lur^  "f  spirit  aally 
minded  rather  than  of  Spirit-guided  men; 
at  least  this  was  the  judgment  of  those 
who  determined  the  Hebrew  canon. 

In  order  to  accuracy  and  clearness  of 
thought  it  is  well  here  to  state  that  the 
literature  of  that  period  between  Malachi 
and  Christ  was  divided  into  two  parts: 

98 


THE  APOCRYPHA 

first,  the  books  that  we  include  in  the 
.\pocrypha;  and,  second,  the  books  known 
as  (jx^r'ihj^ijo.  The  first  were  historical 
and  praotii  i!  Ife  second  prophetical  in 
form  without  prophetic  inspiration,  and 
more  given  to  the  portrayal  of  disasters 
than  to  the  unfolding  of  the  glories  of  the 
coming  kingdom  of  God.  Saint  Jude  rec- 
ognizes the  truthfulness  of  one  passage  at 
least  in  the  book  of  Enoch,  which  is  one 
of  the  apocalyptic  books,  but  no  strong 
claim  has  ever  been  made  for  the  recog- 
nition of  these  books  as  inspired. 

The  books  of  the  Apocrypha,  which  ap- 
proach so  near  to  inspiration  as  to  have  a 
kind  of  halo  about  them  in  our  minds,  are. 
First  and  Second  Esdras,  Tobit,  Judith, 
the  Remainder  of  Esther,  the  Wisdom  of 
Solomon,  Ecclesiasticus,  Baruch,  Song  of 
the  Three  Children,  Story  of  Susanna,  Bel 
and  the  Dragon,  Prayer  of  Manasses,  and 
First  and  Second  Maccabees.  The  first 
point  to  fix  in  our  minds  concerning  these 
books  is  that  they  never  were  admitted 
into  the  Hebrew  Bible;  that  volume 
closed  with  Malachi. 

But  to  understand  that  period  and  the 
99 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

religious  influence  acquired  by  these  books 
we  must  look  beyond  the  established  He- 
brew communion.  There  was  at  that  time 
a  large,  thrifty,  enterprising  Hebrew  popu- 
lation in  all  the  trading  centers  of  the 
world.  Two  influences  were  responsible  for 
this:  first,  the  captives  carried  away  to 
Babylon  and  into  Persia  never  all  returned 
to  Palestine.  Many  of  them  grew  strong 
and  influential  in  the  lands  to  which  they 
were  carried,  and  found  it  to  their  interests 
and  agreeable  to  their  tastes  to  remain; 
second,  the  opportunities  of  traffic  and 
business  in  such  enterprising  cities  as 
Antioch,  Corinth,  and  Alexandria  drew 
many  of  the  most  enterprising  Hebrews 
away  from  their  native  land  for  the  better 
conditions  offered.  In  all  these  commer- 
cial centers  the  Greek  language  was  in 
general  use,  and  where  the  Greek  language 
went,  Greek  arts,  ideas,  and  methods  of 
life  naturally  followed.  The  Hebrew  ele- 
ment in  these  communities  was  touched 
and  modified  by  these  influences.  Saul  of 
Tarsus  was  brought  up  in  such  a  com- 
munity, and,  strict  Jew  as  he  was,  his 
whole  life  shows  the  influence  of  this  en- 

100 


THE  APOCRYPHA 

vironment  upon  the  intellectual  develop- 
ment of  his  young  life.  Naturally,  the  old 
Hebrew  exclusiveness  and  strictness  would 
give  way  to  more  liberal  thoughts  and  feel- 
ings, and  there  grew  up  a  broader-minded, 
a  more  open-minded  generation  of  Jews 
than  had  ever  before  appeared.  While  this 
may  seem  to  have  been  a  loss  in  one  way, 
it  was  a  great  gain  in  another  way,  for  this 
element  in  the  life  of  the  nations  was  a 
people  prepared  and  made  ready  for  the 
approach  of  Christianity.  It  was  among 
these  people  that  Christianity  had  its  first 
great  triumphs.  It  came  to  them  on  the 
plane  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  to  which 
they  were  still  devoted,  but  it  made  cer- 
tain additions  to  them,  a  method  for  which 
their  liberal  tendencies  had  prepared  them. 
If  we  follow  Saint  Paul  in  his  missionary 
tours,  we  find  him  everywhere  going  into 
the  synagogue  of  the  Jews,  opening  the  He- 
brew Bible  and  arguing  from  it  that  "this 
Jesus  whom  I  preach  unto  you  is  Christ." 
This  vast  Grseco-Hebrew  population  had 
its  most  learned  and  influential  center  at 
Alexandria  in  Egypt.  To  that  entire  popu- 
lation the  Apocrypha  appealed  more  power- 

101 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

fully  than  to  the  more  strict  Hebrews.  It 
fell  in  with  their  liberal  tendencies  to  give 
it  larger  consideration  than  was  customary 
among  the  regular  Jews,  and  from  this 
center  in  Alexandria  especially  went  forth 
influences  that  affected  its  relation  to  the 
Bible  for  all  time.  The  king  of  Egypt, 
Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  who  took  a  great 
interest  in  the  Jews  and  in  their  literature, 
conceived  the  happy  thought  of  giving 
them  their  Bible  in  the  Greek  language, 
the  language  with  which  they  were  most 
familiar.  So,  about  B.  C.  250,  he  secured 
the  translation  of  the  Hebrew  Bible  into 
the  Greek  language  by  Seventy,  or,  to 
speak  more  accurately,  seventy-two  of  the 
best  scholars  of  the  age,  from  which  nu- 
merical fact  it  derived  the  name  by  which 
it  has  generally  been  known,  the  Septua- 
gint.  Hardly  any  other  literary  event  has 
played  so  large  a  part  in  the  growing 
thought  of  the  world  as  this  translation 
has,  not  only  in  Egypt  and  Palestine,  but 
throughout  the  world.  To  gratify  these 
Jews  of  "the  dispersion,"  who  naturally 
came  to  have  laxer  views  about  inspiration 
than  was  common  among  strict  Hebrews, 

102 


THE  APOCRYPHA 

the  Apocrypha  was  bound  up  with  the 
other  books  of  the  Bible.  The  books  of 
the  Apocrypha  came  in  by  degrees  in  suc- 
cessive additions  without  formal  action  or 
declaration,  and  so  came  into  common  use 
as  a  kind  of  subordinate  scripture  without 
any  clearly  defined  or  well  understood 
standing  or  authority.  Thus  they  became 
linked  to  the  Septuagint  version  in  a  rela- 
tion that  has  proven  wonderfully  persistent 
and  embarrassing.  So  at  that  early  date 
there  were  practically  two  Bibles,  the  He- 
brew canon  and  the  Septuagint  version 
with  its  apocryphal  addenda. 

A  very  important  question  now  arises: 
What  was  the  attitude  of  the  early  Chris- 
tian Church  toward  these  two  versions.^ 
One  of  the  first  things  that  strike  us  is 
that  our  Lord  and  the  apostles  made 
nearly  all  their  quotations  from  the  Septua- 
gint version.  This  we  must  believe  was 
not  because  of  a  preference  for  that  ver- 
sion, or  for  its  relation  to  the  Apocrypha, 
but  because  it  was  the  only  Bible  three 
was  in  the  language  of  the  people.  The 
people  did  not  understand  the  Hebrew  lan- 
guage;  they   used   the   Greek,   hence   the 

103 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

Greek  Bible  was  used  in  conveying  to 
them  a  message  from  the  Scriptures.  The 
question  as  to  which  was  the  true  Bible, 
the  Palestinian  or  the  Alexandrian,  cannot 
have  been  considered  a  very  important  one, 
for  there  is  no  allusion  to  it  in  all  the 
apostolical  writings. 

The  testimony  of  the  early  fathers  of 
the  Christian  Church  with  practical  una- 
nimity supports  the  Hebrew  canon  as  the 
true  Bible,  but  without  rejecting  the 
Apocrypha  in  every  case,  as  worthy  of  a 
place  with  the  other  sacred  writings.  There 
is  often  a  vagueness  of  statement,  an  ap- 
parent effort  to  gloss  over  a  difficulty  that 
leaves  us  in  doubt  of  the  author's  real 
position.  Melito,  bishop  of  Sardis  (loO- 
170),  gives  a  list  of  the  books  of  the  Bible 
containing  only  the  twenty-two  of  the  He- 
brew canon,  but  he  gives  the  titles  and  the 
order  of  the  LXX,  leaving  us  in  doubt 
whether  he  may  not  have  combined  tw^o 
or  more  books  under  one  title.  The 
learned  Origen  (185-254),  in  dealing  with 
this  question  has  a  similar  vagueness  and 
want  of  definite  statement  that  leaves  us 
in  doubt  as  to  his  exact  meaning.  Irenseus, 

104 


THE  APOCRYPHA 

bishop  of  Lyons  in  Gaul;  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria, the  city  where  the  Apocrypha  had 
its  recognition;  and  Tertullian,  of  North 
Africa,  all  commanding  personalities  in  the 
early  church,  quote  from  the  Apocrypha  and 
have  it  bound  up  with  their  Bibles.  The 
"Old  Latin"  version  of  North  Africa  was 
made  directly  from  the  Alexandrian  Bible 
of  the  LXX  and  contained  the  Apocrypha. 
Coming  down  to  the  great  church  his- 
torian Eusebius,  a  leading  authority  on 
questions  of  the  canon,  we  find  in  his 
writings  three  separate  lists  of  the  books 
in  the  canon  of  the  Scriptures,  and  in  every 
case  he  omits  the  Apocrypha.  Cyril,  bishop 
of  Jerusalem,  a  little  later  is  very  decided 
against  the  use  of  the  Apocrypha  as  scrip- 
ture. Among  other  things  he  says:  "Learn 
from  the  church  what  are  the  books  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testament,  and  I  pray  you 
read  nothing  of  the  apocryphal  books.  For 
the  translation  of  the  Divine  Scriptures 
which  were  spoken  by  the  Holy  Spirit  was 
accomplished  through  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Read  the  twenty-two  books  which  these 
rendered,  but  have  nothing  to  do  with 
apocryphal  writings."      Equally  explicit  is 

105 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

the  testimony  of  the  great  Christian  leader 
of  the  fourth  century,  Athanasius,  bishop  of 
Alexandria.  He  says,  "All  the  books  of  the 
Old  Testament  are  in  number  22."  Then 
he  proceeds  to  give  the  names  of  the  books, 
just  as  we  have  them  to-day.  The  synod  of 
Laodicea  (360)  gives  the  same  list  in  enumer- 
ating the  books  of  the  Bible.  Some  other 
authorities  of  that  period  were  more  favor- 
able to  the  use  of  the  Apocrypha  as  scripture. 
We  now  turn  to  the  Church  of  Rome, 
which  represents  nearly  one  haK  of  the 
nominal  Christianity  of  the  world.  We 
here  find  the  vagueness  and  indefiniteness 
that  had  so  long  prevailed  coming  to  a 
definite  and  clear  statement  in  the  decree 
of  the  Council  of  Trent,  adopted  on  April 
8,  1546.  The  Vulgate  Bible  prepared  by 
and  under  the  direction  of  that  great 
scholar  of  the  fourth  century  Jerome,  for 
a  thousand  years  the  Bible  of  Europe,  at 
first  excluded  all  but  two  books  of  the 
Apocrypha,  but  gradually  they  crept  in  till 
at  the  time  of  the  meeting  of  the  Council 
of  Trent  they  were  all  bound  up  with  the 
canonical  books.  Martin  Luther  strongly 
denounced  the  use  of  the  Apocrypha,  in- 

106 


THE  APOCRYPHA 

sisting  that  only  the  Hebrew  canon  of  the 
Old  Testament  and  the  acknowledged 
books  of  the  New  Testament  should  be 
admitted  as  of  authority.  This  was  as  a 
red  flag  to  the  Council,  which  was  burning 
with  fury  against  everything  Lutheran. 
Though  opposed  by  all  the  best  scholars 
and  ablest  thinkers  of  the  church,  the 
proposed  action  was  rushed  through  the 
Council,  in  which  occurs  the  following: 
"The  holy  Ecumenical  and  General  Coun- 
cil of  Trent,  following  the  example  of  the 
orthodox  fathers,  venerates  all  the  books 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  with  an 
equal  feeling  of  devotion  and  reverence." 
Then  follows  a  list  of  the  books,  including 
all  of  the  Apocrjqjha,  with  an  anathema 
on  all  who  in  the  future  shall  not  receive 
all  the  books  as  equally  inspired  scripture. 
Bishop  Westcott  says:  "This  fatal  decree, 
in  which  the  Council,  harassed  by  the  fear 
of  lay  critics  and  grammarians,  gave  a  new 
aspect  to  the  whole  question  of  the  canon, 
was  ratified  by  fifty -three  prelates,  amongst 
whom  ther<^  was  not  one  German,  not  one 
scholar  distinguished  for  historic^^  learn- 
ing, not  one  who  was  fittod  by  special  study 

107 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

of  the  subject  in  which  the  truth  could  only 
be  determined  by  the  voice  of  antiquity." 
A  General  Council  of  the  Roman  Church 
having  made  such  a  declaration,  there  is 
no  way  of  recalling  or  going  round  it,  but 
it  must  stand  for  all  time  as  the  position  of 
that  church. 

The  attitude  of  the  Greek  Church  has 
been  wavering,  inconstant,  if  not  self- 
contradictory.  The  synods  of  Constanti- 
nople, Jaffa,  and  Jerusalem  seem  to  approve 
the  Apocrypha,  while  many  of  the  leading 
scholars  refuse  to  accept  it,  and  the  Longer 
Catechism  of  Philaret,  which  has  official 
sanction,  gives  to  all  books  outside  of  the 
twenty-two  an  inferior  place,  as  meant  for 
the  reading  of  those  just  entering  the 
church.  The  theory  of  the  church  seems 
to  be  expressed  in  this  rule  of  the  cate- 
chism, but  its  practice  has  been  about  as 
free  and  varied  as  though  there  had  been 
no  rule  on  the  subject. 

The  position  of  the  Anglican  Church  has 
not  been  decidedly  for  or  against  the  use  of 
the  Apocrypha,  though  it  has  consistently 
held  that  full  inspiration  belongs  only  to 
the  canonical  books.     The  Apocrypha  is 

108 


THE  APOCRYPHA 

sanctioned  for  ecclesiastical  use,  but  it  is 
not  accepted  as  authority  for  doctrinal 
purposes.  On  certain  daj^s  portions  of  it 
are  read  in  the  church  lessons,  but  for  edi- 
fication rather  than  for  establishing  doc- 
trine. In  all  her  versions  of  the  Scriptures, 
from  Tyndale  to  the  Authorized  Version, 
the  Apocrypha  is  printed  by  itself  as  an 
appendix  to  the  Old  Testament. 

All  the  Protestant  churches  stand  on  the 
ground  held  by  the  best  scholars  of  all  the 
ages  of  Christian  history,  that  the  books  of 
the  Apocrypha  hold  a  subordinate  position 
to  the  books  of  the  sacred  canon,  are  no  part 
of  it,  and  are  to  be  read  for  edification  and 
instruction  and  not  for  doctrine. 

Thus  we  find  the  Christian  world  divided 
into  two  camps,  one  opposed  to  the  other 
on  this  question  of  what  constitutes  the 
Bible.  Thus  we  are  brought  back  to  our 
fundamental  position  that  inspiration  is  a 
perpetual  thing  in  the  Church  of  God,  and 
that  men  do  not  come  to  the  knowledge  of 
God  and  of  his  will  concerning  them  but 
by  the  Light  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  whether 
they  have  or  have  not  the  Bible.  The 
process  of  spiritual  discrimination,  applica- 

109 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

tion,  and  appropriation  is  still  going  on, 
and  men  must  for  themselves  decide  this 
fundamental  question  of  the  ages  by  choos- 
ing between  the  one  canon  and  the  other. 
Happily,  the  question  is  reduced  to  a  form 
where  great  practical  error  is  not  possible, 
and  the  great  message  of  God  to  men  re- 
mains intact  in  either  choice.  The  addition 
of  the  Apocrypha  to  the  Bible  brings  in  no 
new  truth,  nor  does  it  take  away  any  old 
truth.  God's  real  Word  remains  unaffected 
by  it.  If  with  our  Protestant  Bible  we 
should  bind  up  Abraham  Lincoln's  Gettys- 
burg Speech,  Epictetus  on  How  a  Man 
on  Every  Occasion  Can  Maintain  His 
Proper  Character,  and  Demosthenes's  Ora- 
tion on  the  Crown,  we  would  take  nothing 
from  and  add  nothing  to  God's  great  reve- 
lation to  men.  Some  would  find  in  these 
productions  a  real  inspiration,  as  truly  di- 
vine to  them  as  anything  in  Esther  or  in 
the  Song  of  Solomon,  and  in  no  way 
conflict  with  anything  in  the  sacred  canon. 
Practically,  the  exclusion  or  the  inclusion 
of  the  Apocrypha  is  of  little  importance, 
for  the  great  message  of  God  to  man  is 
unaffected  by  it. 

110 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  PRESENT  STANDING  OF 
THE  BIBLE 

The  Bible  is  now  everywhere  accepted 
by  Christian  believers  as  a  revelation  from 
God,  teaching  the  truths  of  religion  and 
the  duties  of  life  as  no  other  book  does. 
But  it  has  not  been  so  accepted  because 
of  the  claims  of  the  authors,  nor  yet  be- 
cause of  the  faith  of  the  people  to  whom 
the  various  books  were  written,  but  be- 
cause a  living  spiritual  energy  has  gone 
forth  from  it,  producing  fruits  that  reveal 
the  character  of  the  tree.  The  ages  have 
been  full  of  pretended  revelations,  sanc- 
tioned by  assumed  miracles  and  visits  of 
angels.  Even  in  this  most  enlightened 
period  of  the  world's  history  impostors 
boldly  strut  before  the  public,  claiming  to 
be  sent  of  God  to  teach  mankind  the  way 
of  life.  One  of  the  latest  of  these  has 
stolen  and  misappropriated  to  itself  two  of 
the  most  influential  words  in  our  modern 
life,  for  Christian  Science  is  neither  Chris- 
tian nor  scientific;  that  is,  it  does  not  make 
Jesus   Christ  supreme  as  the  Saviour  of 

111 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

men,  nor  does  it  proceed  according  to  the 
facts  of  human  experience  as  testified  to 
in  all  the  course  of  history.  Striking  cases 
of  the  kind  that  have  had  large  success 
through  longer  periods  are  Mohammedan- 
ism and  Mormonisra,  but  other  equally 
fraudulent  but  less  successful  claims  have 
been  innumerable.  A  skillful  artist  can  de- 
ceive "the  very  elect"  in  pretended  mir- 
acles. The  magicians  of  Egypt  were  able 
to  match  the  miracles  wrought  by  Moses 
up  to  a  certain  point. 

The  acceptance  of  a  revelation  by  an 
individual  to  whom  it  is  made  may  be 
sufficiently  warranted  by  attending  cir- 
cumstances, but  to  prepare  a  book  for 
general  acceptance  through  long  periods  of 
time  requires  corroborating  evidences  that 
appeal  to  the  cool  judgment  of  mankind 
with  convincing  force.  The  Christian 
Scriptures  were  subjected  to  the  learned 
criticism  of  the  best  scholars  of  the  age 
when  they  were  written.  They  were  put 
on  trial  and  tested  in  the  practical  ex- 
periences of  life  by  thousands  of  people 
in  all  positions  of  life.  All  the  thinkers, 
scholars,  and  preachers  of  the  faith  were 

112 


STANDING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

set  to  work  comparing  them  with  the  ac- 
cepted standards  of  religious  beUef  and 
with  their  own  rehgious  consciousness,  and 
no  production  found  its  way  into  the  canon 
that  had  not  successfully  passed  all  of 
these  tests  of  its  genuineness  and  truth. 
In  all  these  processes  we  assume  what  was 
promised  by  our  Lord,  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  directed  the  course  of  thought  in 
the  church  and  led  to  such  conclusions  as 
were  according  to  truth. 

The  Bible  is  cordially  accepted  by  the 
believers  of  this  age  as  the  Word  of  God, 
but  it  is  conceded  that  the  human  element 
in  it  is  large.  It  appears  in  the  style  of 
WTiting,  in  the  expression  of  taste,  temper, 
passion,  national  bias,  and  other  peculiari- 
ties of  the  writers.  Saint  Paul  looks  at 
Christianity  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
law,  as  a  system  of  righteousness  and  sal- 
vation above  law  and  yet  not  without  law; 
Saint  Peter  views  Christianity  from  the 
standpoint  of  fulfilled  prophecy;  and  Saint 
James  looks  at  it  as  a  perfected  system  of 
ethics  and  practical  precepts.  The  human 
element  is  everywhere  in  evidence,  its 
weakness  as  well  as  its  strength. 

113 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

The  Word  that  was  made  flesh  also 
presents  this  double  aspect,  "very  God" 
and  "very  man.'*  The  human  element 
was  so  pronounced  that  many  could  see 
only  that,  while  his  closest  friends  of  most 
spiritual  type  fully  recognized  it  and 
thought  it  no  derogation  from  his  deity 
that  he  ate  fish  and  bread  like  other 
hungry  men.  His  favorite  title  for  des- 
ignating himseK  was  "Son  of  man."  As 
with  the  Word  made  flesh,  so  with  the  Word 
made  literature,  the  human  elemeAL,  with 
common  human  hmitations,  is  the  visible, 
the  outstanding  feature  that  adapts  it  to 
human  intelligence  and  makes  the  strong- 
est appeal  to  the  human  heart,  yet  is  '^ 
the  Word  of  God.  It  has  many  limitations 
that  speak  lor  themselves. 

Among  these  is  incompleteness.  It  is  in 
fragments,  as  though  men  became  weary, 
or  knew  but  a  part,  or  had  not  time  and 
other  resources  for  writing  fully.  No 
writer  completes  his  task.  Saint  Matthew 
omits  very  important  utterances  of  the 
Lord  reported  by  Saint  Luke,  and  both 
fail  to  give  some  of  the  best  things  spoken 
by  the  Master,  as  reported  by  Saint  John, 

114 


STANDING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

and  he  declares  in  the  closing  verses  of  his 
Gospel  that  if  he  should  record  all  the 
works  and  words  of  the  Lord,  "even  the 
world  itself  could  not  contain  the  books 
that  would  be  written." 

It  was  limited  also  by  man's  knowledge 
and  capacity  for  understanding.  This  ac- 
counts for  differing  styles  of  writing,  sweep 
of  thought,  depth  of  reasoning,  and  height 
of  poetical  genius  in  the  different  books  of 
divine  revelation.  The  revelation  must  be 
according  to  the  capacity  for  understand- 
ing and  expression  of  the  person  receiving 
it.  The  ablest  teacher  could  not  give  in- 
struction in  algebra  to  one  who  did  not 
know  the  alphabet.  The  messages  of  God 
to  men  had  to  be  adapted  to  their  intelli- 
gence, the  range  of  their  vocabulary,  their 
experience  and  capacity  for  spiritual  un- 
derstanding. Therefore  the  Master  said,  "I 
have  yet  many  things  to  say  unto  you,  but  J 
ye  cannot  bear  them  now."  They  mustj 
learn  more,  experience  more,  and  rise  to  a[' 
higher  plane  of  life  before  they  could  be  fit-  \ 
ted  to  receive  the  revelation  he  had  to  make. 

A  good  illustration  of  this  principle  is  in 
the  use  of  the  word  "holy,"  or  "holiness." 

115 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

It  was  a  thousand  years  before  Israel  came 
to  understand  that  word,  and  only  then 
by  a  careful  education  by  sprinklings,  wash- 
ings, and  ceremonials  emphasizing  the  idea 
of  cleanness  and  purity.  There  was  abso- 
lutely no  conception  or  knowledge  of  such 
a  character  as  that  word  was  intended  to 
represent  outside  of  Hebrew  literature; 
there  were  no  examples,  no  standards,  and 
no  etymology  to  guide  the  understanding. 
The  early  Hebrew  idea  of  the  word  seems 
to  have  been  that  of  unapproachableness. 
The  same  appears  in  the  kindred  word  of 
"righteousness"  as  used  in  Hebrew  litera- 
ture. The  high  ethical  meaning  of  that 
word  did  not  appear  till  the  later  prophets 
of  Israel  turned  their  searchlights  upon  it. 
Revelation  must,  therefore,  be  given  with 
reference  to  man's  vocabulary  and  range  of 
spiritual  understanding,  unless  it  is  in- 
tended, as  in  the  case  of  the  words  just  cited, 
to  follow  the  revelation  with  a  long  process 
of  education  to  make  its  meaning  clear. 

It  was  limited  also  by  its  mechanical 
equipment.  It  was  given  before  the  age  of 
printing  and  paper-making,  and  after  the 
revelation  was  made  its  existence  was  very 

116 


STANDING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

precarious  and  its  preservation  in  accurate 
form  very  doubtful.  It  was  written  for 
the  most  part  on  papyrus,  a  frail  and  un- 
reliable substance  made  of  layers  of  the 
pith  out  of  the  stock  of  a  growing  plant, 
pressed  together,  polished,  and  cut  into 
sheets  from  six  to  eighteen  inches  wide 
and  of  any  length  required.  Parchment 
was  too  costly  for  as  poor  a  people  as  most 
of  the  early  Christians  were.  If  the  sheets 
of  papyrus  became  damp,  they  contracted 
mildew  and  the  writing  became  illegible; 
and  if  they  were  thoroughly  dry,  they  be- 
came brittle  and  were  easily  broken  and 
crumbled.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  being 
often  unrolled,  loaned  from  one  individual 
to  another,  and  carried  from  one  church  to 
another  to  be  read  in  the  services  and 
examined  by  many  curious  people  or  ad- 
mirers of  the  author,  there  would  be  great 
danger  of  deterioration  and  loss.  We  have 
but  to  think  out  the  circumstances  attend- 
ing any  one  of  these  manuscripts  to  see  the 
danger  to  which  they  were  exposed.  Take 
the  case  of  Saint  Paul's  Epistle  to  the 
Romans.  If  it  was  carried  to  Rome  by 
Phoebe,  as  it  probably  was,  her  arrival  in 

117 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

Rome  with  such  a  document  would  be  one 
of  the  most  sensational  events  of  the  age. 
The  next  Sabbath  there  would  not  be 
standing  room  in  the  church  where  the 
epistle  would  be  read,  and  many  eager 
eyes  must  be  permitted  to  look  upon  it. 
Every  congregation  and  group  of  wor- 
shipers must  have  it,  or  some  part  of  it 
read,  and  that  oftentimes.  Then  there 
would  be  requests  to  loan  it  to  nearby  cities 
to  be  read  in  many  assemblies.  A  frail 
fabric  handled  thus,  often  by  unskilled 
hands,  must  soon  sufiFer  in  the  process. 
One  striking  illustration  of  this  liability  to 
breakage  and  the  loss  of  fragments  appears 
in  the  Gospel  of  Mark.  Scholars  are  quite 
agreed  that  such  a  break  occurred  at  the 
eighth  verse  of  the  sixteenth  chapter.  Any- 
one reading  that  chapter  will  note  the  sud- 
den stoppage  of  the  continuous  account  of 
the  resurrection,  and  the  place  of  the  frag- 
ment broken  away  is  filled  in  by  discon- 
nected passages  from  some  other  source, 
possibly  from  memory  on  the  same  subject. 
The  copying  of  these  manuscripts  was 
very  unreliable.  Anyone  who  has  ever 
carried   a   manuscript   through   our   more 

118 


STANDING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

improved  methods  to  publication  knows 
how  difficult  it  is  to  avoid  mistakes.  After 
the  greatest  care  by  typesetter,  proof 
reader,  and  author  going  over  it  again 
and  again,  most  unaccountable  errors  creep 
in.  A  man  employed  to  copy  one  of  these 
Gospel  manuscripts  would  do  his  work 
alone,  in  a  hot  climate,  and  it  would 
hardly  be  possible  for  him  to  execute  his 
task  without  omitting  or  inserting,  or  sub- 
stituting a  wrong  word.  Few  people  can 
copy  even  a  list  of  names  of  any  con- 
siderable length  without  making  mistakes. 

Another  Hmitation  is  in  the  break  of 
continuity.  Not  one  of  the  original  manu- 
scripts of  that  early  apostoHc  age  has  come 
down  to  us.  We  have  only  copies  and 
translations.  But  there  is  a  great  mass  of 
evidence  to  show  that  if  they  are  not 
technically  exact  copies  they  are  vitally  and 
practically  the  same  as  the  originals. 

Some  minds  are  disturbed  by  discovering 
little  inaccuracies  and  errors  in  our  received 
versions  in  matters  that  do  not  affect  the 
vital  theme  or  essential  contents  of  the 
revelation.  Some  minds  are  naturally  tech- 
nical and  given  to  quibbling,  while  others 

119 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

hold  unwarranted  theories  of  divine  in- 
spiration that  are  disturbed  by  discovering 
these  errors.  It  would  be  foreign  to  the 
purpose  of  this  writing  to  give  a  list  of 
these  errors;  they  are  so  many  and  so 
palpable  that  no  careful  reader  can  pass 
over  them  without  observing  them.  The 
various  translations  differ  widely  in  ver- 
biage, and  they  cannot  all  be  the  exact 
words  in  which  the  revelation  was  given 
at  the  first.  And  if  we  admit  any  depar- 
tures from  the  exact  original,  we  have  no 
means  of  determining  how  far  they  may 
have  gone.  But  these  lingual  errors  do 
not  affect  the  great  substance  of  the  mes- 
sage; the  way  of  salvation  and  the  will  of 
God  concerning  human  conduct  shine  out 
clearly  through  all  the  encumbering  limita- 
tions of  the  human  element  of  style  and 
stumbling  utterance.  If  our  Revised  Ver- 
sion is  without  error  as  the  very  Word  of 
God  in  phraseology  as  well  as  in  substance, 
then  our  fathers  had  a  Bible  in  which  were 
many  errors,  as  anyone  may  see  by  com- 
paring the  fifth  of  First  John  and  the  third 
of  Saint  James,  as  well  as  other  scriptures 
in  the  Authorized  and  Revised  Versions. 

120 


STANDING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

This  condition  of  the  revelation  har- 
monizes with  what  was  said  earher  in 
this  discussion  to  the  effect  that  nothing 
could  be  more  fatal  to  human  development, 
spiritual  as  well  as  intellectual,  than  an 
exact  methodical  revelation,  in  which  every 
word  was  just  as  God  uttered  it  and  in 
which  every  duty  of  life  was  clearly  stated, 
so  that  a  man  would  never  have  anything 
more  to  do  than  to  pull  out  his  schedule 
to  determine  just  what  he  ought  to  do. 
This  would  paralyze  the  intellect  and  dwarf 
the  soul  by  removing  the  necessity  for 
effort.  The  mind  needs  the  spur  of  rea- 
sonable doubt,  and  the  necessity  for  la- 
borious and  prolonged  investigation  for  dis- 
entangling complex  and  obscure  conditions. 
For  man*s  good  the  truth  must  be  placed 
w^here  sincerity  of  purpose,  honesty  of 
method,  earnestness  of  effort,  and  prayer 
for  divine  help  are  necessary  to  attain  it. 
This  becomes  an  educating,  developing 
process  that  may  be  of  more  value  to  the 
soul  than  the  truth  itself.  He  is  not  a  wise 
father  who  hands  out  to  his  children  as 
their  needs  require  without  exacting  pro- 
ductive and  creative  energy  and  skill  on 

121 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

their  part,  for  he  thus  holds  them  forever 
in  an  infantile  state.  The  mother  eagle 
chooses  between  nurslings  and  eagles,  and 
because  she  prefers  eagles  she  flings  her 
young  out  of  the  nest  and  compels  them  to 
beat  the  air  wildly  to  save  their  lives  till 
they  learn  to  mount  and  soar  skyward. 

God  has  placed  all  his  gifts  along  the 
pathway  of  heroic  effort.  Man  must  learn 
by  strenuous  toil  how  to  build  a  handful 
of  dust  into  growing  and  ripening  grain, 
how  to  transform  that  into  a  baked  loaf, 
and  how  with  that  to  build  living  tissues 
and  brain  cells  out  of  which,  by  heroic 
effort,  he  can  project  his  Iliad,  his  Divina 
Commedia,  or  his  Paradise  Lost.  He 
thanks  God  for  the  gift  of  gold,  but  he 
does  not  find  gold  dollars  rolling  down  his 
streets,  but  he  must  penetrate  the  frozen 
Klondike,  search  long  and  climb  till  he 
grows  dizzy  to  find  above  the  timber  line, 
carefully  disguised  and  locked  up  in  the 
flinty  quartz,  God's  great  gift  to  man, 
which  he  must  dig,  explode,  crush,  and 
mint  before  he  can  use.  God's  best 
gifts  are  in  some  such  form.  The  great 
vital  thing  in  truth-getting  is  the  hunger 

122 


STANDING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

of  soul  that  longs  for  it,  the  heroic  effort 
that  moves  toward  it,  the  kindling  vision 
that  discloses  it,  and  the  lifting  up  of  the 
soul  to  God  that  finds  him  and  in  him 
finds  the  truth  and  so  is  satisfied.  If  God 
were  to  give  us  a  revelation  that  would 
save  us  this  effort  and  its  resulting  discip- 
line and  development,  it  would  be  a  posi- 
tive injury  to  men.  Jacob  wrestling  in 
doubt  and  fear  all  night  at  the  brook 
Jabbok  was  a  far  better  method  for  his 
highest  good  than  it  would  have  been 
to  send  a  convoy  of  angels  the  day 
before  to  assure  him  of  safety.  There  is 
no  better  method  of  proving  and  develop- 
ing sincerity,  honesty,  and  devotion  in 
men,  and  of  driving  them  to  God  in  prayer 
for  the  promised  teaching  and  guidance  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  than  the  necessity  of 
grappling  with  all  these  questions  raised 
by  modern  criticism,  for  which  the  way 
seems  to  have  been  left  open.  In  this 
search  for  the  truth  the  souls  of  men 
must  be  held  in  a  prayerful  mood  and  in 
vital  relation  to  the  Divine  Spirit  whose 
oflSce  is  to  guide  us  *'into  all  truth,"  the 
truth  that  * 'shall  make  us  free  indeed." 

123 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  BIBLE  THE  CREATURE  OF 
EXPERIENCE 

The  divine  method  of  revelation  was  to 
lift  one  man  into  a  new  atmosphere,  per- 
meate and  enswathe  him  with  truth  and 
spiritual  influence,  and  to  quicken  his  soul 
till  he  had  the  power  of  vision  and  a 
kindled  enthusiasm  for  declaring  the  truth 
as  he  saw  it.  Truth  was  not  dropped  into 
the  mind  as  an  abstract  proposition,  but  it 
came  in  by  the  way  of  experience  as  a 
concrete  fact,  demonstrated  as  to  its  reality 
by  experience.  A  man  must  first  become 
the  truth,  see  and  feel  the  truth;  then 
may  he  prophesy,  and  not  till  then.  It 
means  something  more  than  intellectual 
cognition,  something  deeper,  more  satisfy- 
ing, and  more  assuring.  The  word  of  the 
Lord  must  always  come  out  of  "the  burn- 
ing bush,"  the  supernatural  equipment, 
illumination,  and  empowering  of  a  man 
given  over  to  the  service  of  God.  Espe- 
cially must  this  be  so  for  the  written  reve- 

124 


THE  CREATURE  OF  EXPERIENCE 

lation,  intended  for  the  instruction  of  all 
ages,  that  there  may  be  no  error,  no  lack, 
and  no  extravagance.  It  is  the  office  of 
the  Divine  Spirit  to  charge  the  human 
mind  with  his  thoughts  and  affections,  and 
to  assist  it  in  their  adequate  expression. 

This  element  of  experience  in  divine 
things  as  the  necessary  channel  of  di- 
vine revelation  is  clearly  manifested  in  the 
first  writer  of  our  sacred  books.  When 
the  time  came  for  beginning  the  formal 
development  of  God's  purposes  to  Israel, 
a  special  person  was  selected  as  instrument, 
teacher,  and  leader.  The  childhood  of 
Moses  was  sufficiently  marked  by  special 
providences  and  striking  events  to  raise 
among  his  people  the  highest  expectations 
for  his  after  life.  He  must  have  known 
these  facts  and  been  stimulated  by  them 
in  his  education  in  the  universities  of 
Egypt. 

When  at  the  age  of  forty  he  came  to  a 
consciousness  of  his  divine  vocation  as  de- 
liverer and  leader  of  Israel,  a  little  pre- 
cipitation and  lack  of  prudence  threw  him 
back  on  a  long  course  of  discipline  that 
would  have  crushed  a  less  resolute  man. 

125 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

With  the  charge  of  murder  and  treason 
hanging  over  him,  he  must  hide  himseK 
in  the  far-away  soHtudes  of  Midian.  A 
university  man  of  splendid  abihties,  tend- 
ing sheep  in  mountain  wilds  for  forty 
years,  would  be  a  humiliation  and  dwarf- 
ing experience  that  would  have  broken  or 
shriveled  up  a  nature  of  less  inherent 
greatness.  His  life  seemed  a  failure,  his 
career  ended,  his  conscious  vocation  a  de- 
lusion when,  at  the  age  of  eighty,  came 
the  stirring  call  to  heroic  action,  a  call  so 
illumined  and  vitalized  by  attending  divine 
manifestations  that  it  could  not  be  set 
aside.  Then  followed  the  ten  plagues,  the 
pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  of  fire  by  night 
on  the  outward  march,  the  dividing  sea 
and  the  falling  manna,  Sinai  and  its  reve- 
lations, angel  leadership  and  the  vision  of 
God's  glory.  Then  out  of  all  this  investi- 
ture of  divine  manifestation  and  wonderful 
experiences  came  the  voice  of  a  man,  a 
man  charged  and  packed  full  of  these  great 
events  which  were  translated  into  thought 
and  speech  in  him.  They  became  his  very 
life,  and  he  spoke  what  he  was,  what  he 
saw  and  felt  under  their  molding  influence. 

126 


THE  CREATURE  OF  EXPERIENCE 

All  that  he  wrote  was  but  the  record  of  his 
experience,  and  of  all  that  came  to  him 
and  out  of  him  through  these  experiences. 
He  was  that  "burning  bush"  held  aloft  in 
all  his  leadership  of  the  people,  giving  forth 
light  and  speech  from  the  flame  that  did 
not  consume  but  glorified  that  upon  which 
it  fed. 

If  we  come  to  the  patriarch  of  Uz,  the 
central  figure  in  that  drama  of  truth  that 
has  instructed  and  comforted  so  many,  we 
find  experience  the  substance,  the  ruling 
idea  of  the  book,  turned  over  and  worked 
out  in  all  the  details  of  a  wonderful  teach- 
ing drama.  A  man  stricken  with  loss  of 
children,  property,  health,  and  sorely  per- 
plexed in  mind  about  these  experiences  and 
their  cause  is  visited  by  his  friends,  who 
assume  to  be  his  comforters.  They  at- 
tempt to  apply  to  him  the  untrue  but 
prevalent  theory  of  the  times  that  physical 
well-being  was  proof  of  divine  favor  and 
the  loss  of  it  evidence  of  divine  anger  be- 
cause of  some  sin.  They  pressed  him  to 
make  confession,  to  declare  his  sin  and  thus 
seek  the  favor  of  God,  that  he  might  be 
restored   to   prosperity.     Daily   disputing 

1£7 


THE  IVIAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

with  these  misguided  friends,  worn  out  by 
loss,  suffering,  and  broken  health.  Job  is 
down  where  the  flame  of  life  barely  flickers 
in  its  socket.  When  there  are  no  deeper 
depths  of  distress  to  which  he  may  descend. 
Job  is  commanded  to  "pray  for  his  friends," 
who  had  vexed  and  tormented  him  by  false 
insinuations  in  the  time  of  his  great  suf- 
fering. Rising  to  the  moral  height  of  this 
requirement,  forgetting  his  own  griefs,  in  a 
vicarious  supplication  like  that  on  Calvary, 
he  stretched  out  his  hands  of  skin  and  bone 
toward  heaven,  and  while  he  poured  out 
his  soul  to  God  in  prayer  for  his  misguided 
friends,  thus  reaching  perfection's  height, 
the  light  fell  over  him  and  the  account  is, 
"The  Lord  turned  the  captivity  of  Job, 
when  he  prayed  for  his  friends."  It  is  a 
drama  of  wonderful  experiences,  luminous 
with  truth  and  instructive  to  all  ages  by 
his  experiences  and  through  them.  It  is 
the  experience  that  infolds  and  gives  out 
the  light  that  is  in  the  book,  and  from  the 
first  it  speaks  of  and  to  experience. 

If  we  move  forward  along  the  track  of 
history  to  the  great  source  of  the  psalmody 
and  spiritual  literature  of  the  Hebrews,  we 

128 


THE  CREATURE  OF  EXPERIENCE 

find  everywhere  the  "Hving  waters"  flow- 
ing from  the  smitten  rock  of  experience. 
The  poet  king  who  gave  the  Hebrew  peo- 
pk^  their  first  great  spiritual  inspiration  and 
uphft  was  thoroughly  disciplined  and  de- 
veloped in  the  school  of  experience,  and  his 
highest  poetical  flights  were  the  declaration 
of  his  own  states  of  mind  or  experience. 
His  boyhood  training  as  a  shepherd  de- 
veloped in  him  what  became  the  ruling  idea 
of  his  life,  the  duty  and  necessity  of  caring 
for  others;  and  in  a  country  where  there 
were  no  universities  it  was  one  of  the  best 
possible  trainings  for  kingship. 

While  yet  a  lad  he  heard  the  living  God 
and  the  armies  of  Israel  defied  by  the 
braggart  Philistine  giant  and  felt  his  na- 
ture stirred  to  its  profoundest  depths  and 
his  faith  put  to  its  utmost  test.  Then  first 
there  came  into  his  nature  a  thrilling  con- 
sciousness of  power,  as  it  has  come  to  many 
another  lad  on  occasion,  and  he  felt  that 
all  Israel  was  in  some  way  represented  in 
him  and  that  he  stood  in  defense  of  the 
glory  and  honor  of  Jehovah.  In  that  con- 
sciousness the  hero  emerges  and  the  shep- 
herd boy  drops  out  of  sight.    After  that  he 

129 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

came  into  the  experience  of  a  great  love 
and  a  bitter  hate.  Jonathan  loved  him,  as 
hardly  any  other  man  has  loved  another, 
and  Saul  hated  him  with  a  wild,  cruel,  irra- 
tional hate  that  would  be  appeased  by 
nothing  less  than  the  death  of  its  object. 
But  standing  there  over  the  sleeping  form 
of  his  enemy,  with  his  drawn  sword  in  his 
hand,  he  cut  away  only  the  skirt  of  the 
king's  robe  which  he  afterward  displayed 
as  proof  of  a  magnanimity  like  that  of  the 
prayer  of  Calvary  by  the  Master  for  his 
crucifiers.  Afterward,  with  a  sad  break  in 
his  own  moral  integrity,  followed  by  bitter 
penitence  and  spiritual  restoration,  he 
learned  in  himself  the  frailty  of  human 
nature. 

To  these  educating  and  developing  ex- 
periences that  fitted  him  so  admirably  for 
speaking  out  the  truth  most  needful  to 
men  was  to  be  added  in  his  old  age  the 
heartbreaking  anguish  of  rebellion  in  his 
own  family.  He  was  driven  out  of  Jeru- 
salem and  across  the  Kidron,  derided  by 
some  of  his  own  subjects,  and  found  retreat 
in  the  wilderness  across  the  Jordan.  The 
ambitious  Absalom  pursued  him  with  an 

130 


THE  CREATURE  OF  EXPERIENCE 

army,  and  when  the  battle  was  joined,  the 
king  sat  in  the  gate  waiting  for  tidings. 
When  one  came  saying,  "All  the  king's 
enemies  be  as  that  young  man  Absalom 
is,"  then  the  king  turned  away  and  went 
up  to  his  chamber  lamenting  as  he  went, 
"O  my  son  Absalom,  my  son,  my  son 
Absalom !  Would  God  I  had  died  for  thee, 
O  Absalom,  my  son,  my  son!" 

All  these  thrilling  experiences  were 
breathed  forth  by  this  tuneful  and  poetic 
nature  in  the  psalms  that  have  been  the 
voice  of  the  Lord  to  the  souls  of  men 
through  all  these  centuries  because  they  fit 
human  experiences  so  perfectly,  so  evi- 
dently the  word  of  God  to  some  soul  in  its 
deepest  experiences  reproduced  and  ex- 
pressed for  the  instruction  and  comfort  of 
all  souls.  The  things  that  he  had  ex- 
perienced developed,  clarified,  and  spirit- 
ualized his  thought,  and  became  the 
repertory  on  which  to  draw,  under  divine 
guidance,  for  the  instruction  of  others.  We 
read  what  he  says  with  our  eyes  on  his 
experiences,  and  interpret  the  one  by  the 
other. 

It  is  equally  true  of  the  great  "evan- 
131 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

gelical  prophet  of  Israel"  that  he  came  to 
his  visions  of  the  truth  by  the  way  of 
experience.  Isaiah  sa^^s,  "In  the  year  that 
King  Uzziah  died  I  saw  also  the  Lord 
sitting  upon  a  throne,  high  and  lifted  up." 
In  that  vision  there  came  to  him  an  over- 
whelming sense  of  his  sinfulness,  and  he 
poured  out  confessions  and  self-reproaches 
till  an  angel  came  with  a  coal  of  fire  from 
the  altar  and  laid  it  upon  his  lips  and  de- 
clared that  his  inquity  was  purged  away. 
Then,  with  a  new  light  and  a  new  life,  he 
began  those  wonderful  utterances,  made 
possible  by  fire-tipped  and  fire-purified  lips, 
that  have  been  for  the  comfort  and  instruc- 
tion of  the  church  to  this  day.  The  ex- 
perience antedated  and  was  the  channel  of 
the  revelations,  of  the  high  sense  of  right- 
eousness, of  the  fine  ethical  sense,  and  of 
the  vision  of  the  coming  Christ  that  ap- 
pear on  all  his  pages.  The  light  of  that 
first  vision  illuminated  the  whole  universe 
of  truth  and  flung  its  light  far  out  along 
the  pathway  on  which  men  are  traveling. 
But  for  that  experience  the  voice  of  Isaiah 
would  probably  not  have  been  heard  be- 
yond his  own  age,  and  his  message  will 

132 


THE  CREATURE  OF  EXPERIENCE 

hardly  be  understood  but  bj^  the  way  of  a 
similar  experience.  Truth  lies  in  strata, 
moves  in  levels,  and  to  understand  it  one 
must  rise  to  it,  strike  its  vein,  and  follow 
its  bent. 

The  prophet  Ezekiel  was  not  less  depend- 
ent upon  the  vehicle  of  experience  in  the 
revelations  that  came  to  him  and  through 
him  to  the  world  than  were  the  other  Old 
Testament  writers.  His  first  educating  ex- 
perience was  the  deep  pain  and  humiliation 
of  a  captive  in  a  strange  land.  This  no 
doubt  drove  him  to  earnest  prayerfulness 
and  searching  inquiry  into  the  ways  of  the 
Lord  with  his  people.  Then  rose  before 
him  that  wonderful  spectacle  of  the  four 
living  creatures — the  wheels  and  wheels 
within  wheels,  full  of  eyes,  the  infolding 
fii*e,  and  the  moving  power  that  proceeded 
in  straight  lines.  This  burning  fire,  the 
seeing  eyes,  rolling  wheels,  and  straight 
movements  come  to  expression  and  exposi- 
tion in  the  subsequent  words  of  the 
prophet.  This  experience,  and  all  else  fol- 
lows naturally. 

If  we  come  to  the  New  Testament,  we 
find    there    also    experience    going    before 

133 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

teaching  and  furnishing  the  material  for  it. 
The  apostle  Paul  had  one  great  experience 
that  changed,  illuminated,  and  empowered 
his  whole  life  and  gave  character  and  sub- 
stance to  all  his  thinking.  He  rose  into  a 
new  realm  of  truth  by  experience,  and  he 
lived,  worked,  wrote,  and  fought  on  the 
facts  of  that  experience.  For  forty  years 
of  wonderful  ministry  that  was  his  constant 
appeal;  whether  before  the  mob  in  Jerusa- 
lem or  before  King  Agrippa,  everywhere 
and  always  he  recounted  that  experience 
as  his  defense  and  as  the  explanation  of 
his  life.  The  Christology  of  Saint  Paul, 
the  most  pronounced  and  glowing  doctrinal 
feature  of  the  New  Testament,  was  de- 
veloped out  of  that  experience.  We  read 
those  wonderful  passages  in  Romans,  Ephe- 
sians,  and  Colossians,  in  which  the  Lord- 
ship and  redeeming  glory  of  Jesus  Christ 
are  stated  with  such  ability  and  beauty  of 
phrase,  looking  all  the  time  at  that  Damas- 
cus experience  as  the  germinal  source  of  it 
all.  Out  of  this  Christology  of  Saint  Paul 
rose  his  doctrine  of  sin  and  grace,  and  out 
of  that  his  doctrine  of  law  and  faith.  Not 
only  do  his  doctrines  come  out  of  that 

134 


THE  CREATURE  OF  EXPERIENCE 

experience,  but  the  moral  and  spiritual 
forces  of  his  life  have  the  same  origin. 
With  such  a  vision  of  the  power  and  glory 
of  Jesus  Christ  as  came  to  him,  there  never 
could  be  lack  of  courage,  faith,  abounding 
cheerfulness,  or  overflowing  love.  That 
experience  contained  the  germ  of  all  doc- 
trine, personal  devotion,  ministerial  fidel- 
ity, missionary  impulse,  and  hopeful  out- 
look to  the  future.  How  could  he  fear 
shipwreck,  prisons,  scourgings,  persecu- 
tions, or  any  possible  ills  after  such  an 
experience?  And  was  it  not  perfectly  logi- 
cal for  him  to  send  down  the  ages  the 
ringing  challenge,  "Rejoice  in  the  Lord  al- 
way:  and  again  I  say.  Rejoice".^ 

Saint  Peter's  writing  and  preaching,  so 
far  as  reported,  is  a  reproduction  of  what  he 
saw,  heard,  and  experienced.  When  insist- 
ing that  the  faith  he  held  was  not  "cun- 
ningly devised  fables,"  he  supports  the  as- 
sertion by  declaring  that  he  and  his  fellow 
disciples  "were  eyewitnesses  of  his  majesty. 
For  he  received  from  God  the  Father  honor 
and  glory,  when  there  came  such  a  voice 
to  him  from  the  excellent  glory.  This  is  my 
beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased. 

135 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

And  this  voice  which  came  from  heaven  we 
heard,  when  we  were  with  him  in  the  holy 
mount."  This  is  the  substance  of  all  apos- 
tolical teaching — the  report  and  exposition 
of  the  various  experiences  through  which 
they  passed  in  association  with  Christ  or 
in  the  prosecution  of  his  work  after  his 
ascension.  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  is  but 
a  record  of  miracles,  of  the  works  connected 
with  them,  and  of  the  truths  illustrated 
and  confirmed  by  them.  Instead  of  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  it  would  be  nearer 
the  actual  facts  to  call  it  "The  Dynamics 
of  the  Holy  Spirit."  It  is  a  book  of  ex- 
periences with  their  doctrinal  implications. 

This  is  a  close  adherence  to  the  strict 
scientific  method:  first  the  fact,  then  the 
theory  or  doctrine  derived  from  it.  But 
always  the  fact  is  the  basal,  the  determin- 
ing thing,  and  the  doctrine  the  necessary 
logical  conclusion  from  the  fact.  In  con- 
nection with  the  experience  revelations 
were  made  that  reached  out  into  the  future 
or  into  realms  of  truth  beyond  the  range 
of  experience,  but  in  natural  line  with  it, 
deducible  from  it,  and  confirmed  by  it. 

As  revelation  came  to  us  by  the  way  of 
136 


THE  CREATURE  OF  EXPERIENCE 

experience,  and  moves  on  that  plane,  so  is 
it  understood  only  in  the  light  of  ex- 
perience. We  must  rise  to  its  level  if  we 
would  catch  its  spirit  and  deepest  mean- 
ing. One  must  have  musical  taste  and 
culture  to  appreciate  the  best  music;  only 
artistic  taste — that  is,  a  mind  conscious  of 
the  beauties  of  art — can  appreciate  a  mas- 
terpiece; literary  taste  and  culture  are 
necessary  for  the  understanding  and  ap- 
preciation of  the  best  literature;  so  is  a 
spiritual  nature,  developed  by  spiritual  ex- 
periences, necessary  to  the  understanding 
of  revelation.  This  manifest  fact  in  our 
intellectual  life  is  clearly  stated  by  Saint 
Paul  when  he  says:  "But  the  natural  man 
receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of 
God:  for  they  are  foolishness  unto  him: 
neither  can  he  know  them,  because  they 
are  spiritually  discerned."  Therefore  to  re- 
ceive the  revelation  properly  requires  the 
same  spiritual  elevation  that  is  necessary 
in  making  it,  which  brings  us  again  to  the 
proposition  stated  before  in  this  discussion, 
that  inspiration  by  the  Holy  Ghost  is  the 
perpetual  need  and  privilege  of  believers, 
as  it  is  the  promised  office  and  work  of  the 

137 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

Divine  Spirit.  As  in  wireless  telegraphy 
the  receiving  station  must  be  constructed 
and  equipped  as  the  transmitting  station  is, 
so  they  that  receive  must  be  in  the  same 
spiritual  condition  as  they  who  transmit 
the  revelation. 


138 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  BIBLE  TESTED  BY 
EXPERIENCE 

This  is  a  fair  test,  just  to  the  book,  re- 
liable and  scientific  in  character,  and  satis- 
fying to  the  thinking  mind.  If  it  was  sent 
forth  by  God,  the  embodiment  of  infinite 
wisdom,  adapted  to  the  human  race  by 
the  maker  of  it,  and  designed  for  a  certain 
purpose  by  Him  who  rules  all  things,  then 
we  have  a  right  to  expect  two  things  of  it: 
first,  that  there  will  be  in  it  a  working 
energy  that  will  persist  and  hold  to  its 
purpose  till  its  work  is  done;  and,  second, 
that  it  will  be  found  to  fit  into  existing  con- 
ditions and  to  work  toward  a  general 
betterment. 

If  it  came  forth  from  God  and  has  in  it 
the  life  and  thought  of  God,  its  system  of 
truth  should  be  reasonably  satisfying  to  the 
most  learned  minds,  its  standard  of  ethics 
should  be  the  best  known,  its  curative  and 
corrective  methods  for  human  frailties  and 
weaknesses  should  be  the  most  effective, 

139 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

its  motives  to  worthy  conduct  the  most 
moving,  its  rewards  to  virtue  the  most 
engaging,  its  supports  under  trial  the  great- 
est, its  outlook  for  hope  the  brightest,  its 
grounds  for  confidence  the  strongest,  its 
aids  to  love  the  most  creative  and  helpful, 
its  regenerating  power  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
the  most  effective,  and  in  all  ways  it 
should  prove  itself  an  adequate  corrective 
of  human  perversity  and  an  abundant 
supply  for  human  need.  If  God  sent  it  into 
the  world,  putting  his  personality  into  it 
and  back  of  it,  so  that  he  could  say  of  his 
Word,  "It  shall  not  return  unto  me  void, 
but  it  shall  accomplish  that  which  I  please, 
and  it  shall  prosper  in  the  thing  whereto  I 
send  it,"  then  we  shall  be  justified  in  look- 
ing for  results  corresponding  to  this  high 
deal.  Does  it  accomplish  what  it  pro- 
f>oses?  Is  it  effective  in  the  thing  it  under- 
rakes.^  Does  it  live  up  to  contract?  These 
questions  naturally  suggest  themselves,  we 
have  a  right  to  ask  them,  and  the  author 
of  the  revelation  invites  us  to  consider 
them. 

This   is  the  scientific   method,   settling 
questions  by  facts.     The  final,  the  unan- 

140 


TESTED  BY  EXPERIENCE 

swerable  appeal  is  to  facts;  they  must 
stand;  they  will  stand,  inveigh  against 
them  as  we  may.  When  the  question  of 
propelling  cars  by  steam  was  under  dis- 
cussion it  was  said  in  the  British  Parlia- 
ment that  it  would  be  impossible,  for  a 
speed  of  twenty  miles  an  hour  would  take 
,\way  one's  breath.  But  this  seemingly 
conclusive  argument  lost  all  its  force  when 
the  great  trains  between  London  and  Edin- 
burgh began  running  more  than  forty  miles 
an  hour.  Men  sneered  at  the  proposition 
of  an  Atlantic  cable,  but  when  Queen  Vic- 
toria and  the  President  of  the  United  States 
exchanged  congratulations  under  the  ocean 
the  argument  was  closed.  Facts  crash 
through  theories,  overturn  and  remake 
them.  Facts  of  experience  are  the  final, 
the  unanswerable  arguments,  and  by  them 
the  Bible  must  stand  or  fall.  Life  is  more 
than  logic,  experience  more  than  philos- 
ophy, and  fact  more  than  theory. 

The  Bible  came  into  the  world  to  teach, 
regenerate  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  de- 
velop human  beings.  It  was  thrown  into  a 
swirling  mass  of  contending  forces  to  mas- 
ter, guide,  and  unify  them  for  the  uplifting 

141 


THE  IVIAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

of  men.  In  this  work  it  encountered  great 
opposition  from  the  very  first.  Its  message 
was  uncompromising,  insistent  upon  new 
and  unwelcome  ideals,  condemnatory  of 
much  that  was  highly  prized,  and  hostile 
to  the  prevailing  order  of  things.  If  not 
revolutionary,  it  was  so  radical  and  uncom- 
promising in  its  teaching  that  it  tended 
toward  a  world-wide  overturning  and  re- 
adjustment. The  ambitions,  passions,  and 
lusts  of  men  everywhere  combined  against 
it;  rulers  were  afraid  of  it,  and  the  common 
people  hated  it  because  it  interfered  with 
their  pleasures.  The  burning  of^  the  roll  of 
Jeremiah's  message  by  the  king  of  Judah 
was  but  a  type  of  that  spirit  of  opposition 
that  has  antagonized  every  stage  ot  the 
unfolding  revelation. 

This,  then,  is  its  first  practical  test,  the 
opposition  of  its  enemies.  This  proved  its 
quality,  its  power  of  endurance  and  of 
recuperation,  and  the  reality  of  a  divine 
superintendence  ove^-  it^  course.  It  is  the 
kind  of  proof  the  battleship  is  subject  to 
when  the  forts  pour  their  rain  of  shells  upon 
it;  if  it  comes  unharmed  out  of  that  trial, 
we  need  no  other  proof  of  its  quality. 

142 


TESTED  BY  EXPERIENCE 

The  Bible  has  survived  the  opposition  of 
many  of  the  keenest  intellects  and  best 
scholars  of  the  various  ages  of  its  history. 
Evil-minded  men  have  employed  all  the 
resources  of  their  great  learning  and  in- 
genuity to  discredit  its  claims  and  to  dis- 
pute its  authority.  The  first  appearance 
of  the  sacred  books,  the  Word  in  literature, 
was  greeted  with  as  much  skepticism  and 
opposition  as  were  manifested  against  the 
*'Word  made  flesh,"  and  they  were  sup- 
ported by  much  more  learning  and  intel- 
lectual ability  than  were  employed  in  the 
effort  to  discredit  Jesus  Christ.  No  keener 
intellect  ever  entered  the  field  of  contro- 
versy than  was  employed  by  Celsus  in  the 
second  century  in  his  efforts  to  discredit 
the  Scriptures,  and  many  of  his  colaborers 
in  this  undertaking  were  men  of  great 
ability  and  varied  learning.  Hardly  any- 
thing new  has  been  said  against  the  Scrip- 
tures since  that  first  and  fierce  assault. 
Many  of  the  propositions  of  "modern 
doubt,"  "advanced  thought,"  "new  theol- 
ogy," or  "latest  scientific  thought"  are 
simply  unexploded  shells  picked  up  from 
that  old  battlefield.    That  early  period,  on 

143 


THE  IVIAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

to  the  fifth  century,  remains  unsurpassed 
for  the  brilHant  scholarship  and  the  keen 
intellects  employed  both  in  the  attack  and 
in  the  defense  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  The 
Bible  came  forth  from  this  trial  by  fire  of 
the  intellect  clearer  and  stronger  in  its 
grip  upon  the  minds  of  men  than  it  had 
ever  been  before. 

Then  followed  the  trial  by  rude  force. 
If  men  could  not  overcome  the  Bible  by 
reason,  they  could  at  least  strike  it  down 
with  the  bludgeon  of  rude  force.  The 
whole  force  of  the  Roman  army,  then  su- 
preme throughout  the  world,  was  em- 
ployed to  put  the  Bible  out  of  existence. 
During  the  period  of  the  great  ten  perse- 
cutions (64-303)  three  objects  were  con- 
stantly aimed  at — the  suppression  of  public 
worship,  the  destruction  of  the  individual 
believer,  and  the  wiping  out  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  Diligent  search  was  made  for 
copies  of  the  hated  book,  a  world-wide 
campaign  was  set  on  foot  for  its  utter 
extirpation,  and  no  means  of  torture  were 
left  untried  to  force  confession  of  where  it 
was  being  concealed.  Many  brave  men 
laid  down  their  lives  rather  than  surrender 

144 


^  TESTED  BY  EXPERIENCE 

the  Holy  Scriptures  to  the  destroyers, 
others  resorted  to  various  devices  to  con- 
ceal and  preserve  the  book  of  their  faith. 
The  great  church  historian  Eusebius  says 
of  this  period  of  persecution,  "I  saw  with 
my  own  eyes  the  houses  of  prayer  thrown 
down  and  razed  to  their  foundations  and 
the  inspired  and  Sacred  Scriptures  con- 
signed to  the  fire  in  the  open  market 
place."  But  He  who  had  declared  that 
"the  word  of  God  liveth  and  abideth  for- 
ever" kept  "watch  and  ward  over  his 
own,"  and  in  proof  of  its  divine  origin  and 
protection  the  Bible  came  forth  from  this 
fierce  storm  of  wrath  to  regain  all  it  had 
lost  and  to  spread  to  the  uttermost  parts 
of  the  earth. 

We  now  pass  over  a  long  period  of  time 
in  which  were  various  forms  of  opposition 
to  the  Bible^to  mention  the  most  formal 
and  formidable  attack  of  atheism.  A  short 
method  in  logic  would  be  to  prove  that 
there  was  no  personal  God,  then,  of  course, 
there  could  be  no  divine  revelation.  This 
form  of  opposition  rose  to  its  highest  de- 
velopment among  the  French  Encyclo- 
paedists   during    the    eighteenth    century. 

145 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

Among  the  great  scholars  and  writers  who 
united  in  this  movement  were  Voltaire, 
Diderot,  Rousseau,  and  others  who  brought 
greai  literary  skill  to  the  support  of  their 
undertaking.  The  Bible  was  ridiculed, 
sneered  at,  buffeted,  and  sent  to  the  cross, 
only  to  come  forth  again  in  a  glorious 
resurrection  as  the  kindling  rays  of  the 
English  Reformation  lighted  up  the  dawn 
of  a  new  day,  giving  further  proof  of  the 
divine  life  that  forever  abides  in  it. 

Another  form  of  attack  upon  the  Word 
of  God  was  in  the  negations  and  destruc- 
tive criticism  of  the  English  deists,  who 
flourished  about  the  time  of  the  French 
Encyclopaedists,  and  whom  they  rivaled  in 
learning  and  intellectual  ability.  Among 
these  may  be  named  such  brilliant  writers 
as  Gibbon,  Bolingbrook,  Hume,  and  others 
who  have  brought  honor  to  English  letters 
and  glory  to  the  Word  of  God  by  leaving 
it  unharmed  after  their  able  attacks  upon 
it.  About  this  time,  and  apparently  as  the 
divine  answer  to  these  attacks,  a  young 
Oxford  student  reading  his  Greek  Testa- 
ment received  such  an  impulse  and  uplift 
from  it  that  he  went  out  and  shook  the 

146 


TESTED  BY  EXPERIENCE 

nations  with  the  power  of  his  word,  till 
men  everywhere  were  roused  to  a  new 
faith  in  the  Bible  and  to  a  new  application 
of  its  teach ings  to  the  regulation  of  their 
conduct.  All  forms  of  attack  upon  the 
book  have  recoiled  upon  their  authors,  leav- 
ing it  stronger  in  its  hold  upon  the  human 
mind  than  before.  All  this  looks  very 
nnich  as  though  it  was  given  by  One 
who  knew  perfectly  its  power  of  endurance 
and  recuperation  and  the  spiritual  forces 
that  were  to  come  into  it  and  attend  it,  as 
well  as  the  limitations  of  all  forms  of  attack 
that  could  possibly  be  made,  and  who  fore- 
saw that  it  was  to  go  on  increasing  in  power 
and  influence  till  the  whole  world  was  filled 
with  its  light  and  truth.  After  all  the 
attacks  upon  it  this  old  book  is  the  young- 
est and  freshest  thing  of  our  literature  if 
we  are  to  judge  by  that  fairly  good  rule, 
*'the  best  seller."  In  all  the  markets  of 
the  world  men  are  asking  for  what  has 
proved  itself  to  be  "the  bread  of  life"  with 
increasing  eagerness. 

In  this  test  of  experience  we  must  also 
consider  the  verdict  of  those  who  having 
accepted  the  Bible  in  good  faith  as  the 

147 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

Word  of  God  have  been  proving  it  in  the 
experiences  of  hfe.  It  is  a  fair  question  to 
ask  whether  it  has  proven  itself  workable, 
adequate,  reliable,  and  suitable  to  human 
needs.  The  proof  of  a  medicine  is  in  the 
cures  it  effects,  of  a  machine  in  the  work 
it  does,  and  of  a  religion  in  the  character 
it  creates  and  maintains.  This  book,  when 
its  teachings  are  accepted  and  embodied  in 
experience,  shows  the  thief  made  honest, 
the  drunkard  made  sober,  the  licentious 
made  clean,  savage  tribes  raised  to  civilized 
nations,  civilized  nations  becoming  mis- 
sionary, and  all  virtues  stimulated  and 
strengthened.  This  is  proof  that  it  fits 
human  conditions,  that  it  was  given  by 
One  who  perfectly  understood  these  con- 
ditions and  how  to  deal  with  them,  and 
who  was  good  enough  to  provide  the  best 
things  for  men.  If  for  a  machine  that  runs 
badly  or  tends  toward  self-destruction 
when  driven  to  action,  an  adjustment  is 
provided  that  corrects  its  fault,  it  will 
be  acknowledged  to  be  the  work  of  the 
maker  of  the  machine,  or  of  some  one 
equal  to  him  in  understanding.  This  is 
the  conclusion  we  arrive  at  concerning  the 

148 


TESTED  BY  EXPERIENCE 

Bible:  that  because  it  has  proven  adequate 
for  all  man's  needs,  in  every  land  and  age, 
and  in  every  grade  of  culture  and  wealth, 
therefore  it  must  have  been  given  by  his 
Maker  who  perfectly  understood  the  pos- 
sibilities of  his  life.  The  Magdalenes  fol- 
lowed it,  and  it  led  them  to  pure  and 
beautiful  womanhood.  The  prodigals  fol- 
lowed it,  and  it  turned  their  steps  to  their 
Father's  house,  to  the  fatted  calf  and  the 
new  robe.  The  poor  man  accepted  it,  and 
he  became  conscious  of  his  worth  and 
dignity  as  the  child  of  a  King  with  a  great 
inheritance  waiting  for  him.  The  venerable 
pilgrim,  nearing  the  end  of  his  journey, 
walked  in  its  light  and  saw,  to  his  great 
joy,  that  he  was  just  at  the  beginning  of 
an  endless  life.  It  came  to  the  man  vexed 
with  doubt  and  fear  and  gave  him  peace, 
to  the  sorrowing  and  gave  comfort,  to  the 
dying  and  took  from  death  its  sting,  and 
over  the  whole  of  life  it  spread  the  pro- 
tecting canopy  of  God'.«  ^^^-^^^asting  mercy. 
The  Bible  proves  iis?]f  r\v  enduriniT  the 
t€|vst  of  growing  knowledge  and  culture.  At 
t'le  end  of  three  thousand  years  of  mar- 
velous development  we  still  find  the  Bible 

149 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

leading  the  van  as  the  most  trusted  teacher 
and  guide  of  the  race.  It  has  not  yet  been 
superseded,  nor  has  its  Hght  grown  dim 
amid  the  splendors  of  the  day  in  which  we 
live.  This  could  not  have  been  the  case 
had  it  been  the  product  of  the  human 
mind  only.  It  is  proof  of  divine  origin, 
that  coming  into  the  world  in  a  dark  age 
and  among  a  people  not  remarkable  for 
intellectual  culture,  its  teachings  still  tran- 
scend all  that  the  brightest  intellects  have 
been  able  to  produce  in  a  long  period  of 
wonderful  growth  in  knowledge. 

In  the  portrayal  of  the  divine  character 
it  takes  a  position  so  far  above  and  apart 
from  all  other  human  hterature  as  to  pre- 
clude the  idea  of  invention.  The  Greek 
Zeus,  the  Roman  Jupiter,  or  all  the  gods  of 
the  nations  with  the  best  qualities  in  each 
combined  into  one  conception  of  Deity 
fall  so  far  below  the  Hebrew  Jehovah  or 
the  Christian  Jesus  Christ  as  to  force  the 
conviction  that  the  Bible  conception  was  a 
gift  of  inspiration.  In  all  the  advanced 
culture  of  which  our  age  may  justly  boast 
not  one  line  has  been  added  to  or  taken 
from  that  conception,   nor  has  anything 

150 


TESTED  BY  EXPERIENCE 

larger  or  better  or  equally  good  entered 
into  the  thought  of  men.  Far  above  all 
our  thinking  rises  strong,  clear,  pure,  and 
unapproachable  the  biblical  ideal  of  the 
Divine  Being,  as  a  vision  that  came  down 
from  heaven  and  broods  over  the  earth 
as  a  lifegiving  and  sanctifying  revelation. 
Not  only  in  the  ideal  of  divinity,  but 
also  in  the  ideal  morality  for  men  the 
biblical  conception  rises  far  above  every 
other.  The  best  modern  thinking,  unless 
formed  after  its  models,  does  not  approach 
it  in  excellence  of  quality.  In  the  field  of 
ethics  Plato,  with  whom  Socrates  and  Aris- 
totle practically  agree,  named  four  elements 
as  comprehending  his  thought  on  the  sub- 
ject. They  were:  (1)  Wisdom,  (2)  Cour- 
age, or  fortitude,  (3)  Temperance,  or  order- 
liness, (4)  Justice,  or  uprightness.  There 
was  no  recognition  of  benevolence  or  of 
good  will  toward  men  in  that  early  philos- 
ophy, nor  did  it  occur  to  them  to  arrive  at 
good  morals  by  the  way  of  a  clean  heart 
or  a  right  spirit.  The  inward  state,  the 
source  of  all  character,  did  not  come  within 
the  scope  of  their  thinking.  The  ethics  of 
the  Bible  so  far  surpass  all  man's  thinking, 

151 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

both  ancient  and  modern,  that  it  is  evident 
man  did  not  formulate  its  teaching. 

The  Bible  has  been  tested  in  the  spiritual 
realm  with  similar  results.  The  keenest 
intellects  have  found  nothing  to  be  added 
and  nothing  to  be  taken  from  the  funda- 
mental, all-inclusive  law,  "Thou  shalt  love 
the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  with 
all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  strength,  and 
with  all  thy  mind;  and  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself."  The  very  announcement  of  it 
staggers  the  brain  and  dazzles  the  eyes; 
it  is  too  high  for  human  thought  to  climb 
to  it;  the  mind  of  man  never  could  have 
produced  it  without  so  marring  it  in  the 
process  as  to  render  it  other  than  what  it 
is.  Let  a  man  sit  down  and  try  to  think 
of  something  higher  than  this,  to  write  out 
something  that  will  equal  or  surpass  it,  and 
he  will  feel  the  truth  of  what  we  are  saying 
about  it.  So  far  as  we  can  see,  it  is  not 
possible  for  any  intelligence  to  conceive  or 
express  anything  higher  or  better  than  that 
law. 

In  its  practical  teaching  the  same  supe- 
riority to  all  human  systems  for  regulating 
and  ordering  human  conduct  appears.    In 

152 


TESTED  BY  EXPERIENCE 

all  the  ways  of  testing  to  which  the  Bible 
has  been  subjected  in  human  experience  it 
proves  itself  more  than  human,  that  it  is 
manifestly  of  divine  origin. 


153 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  BIBLE  AMENABLE  TO 
CRITICISM 

Criticism  is  the  natural  impulse,  right, 
and  duty  of  the  intelligent  mind,  and  no 
considerations  of  prudence,  authority,  or 
mock  reverence  can  work  the  forfeiture  of 
that  right.  No  one  can  look  upon  the 
Parthenon  or  the  temple  of  Theseus  in 
Athensi  without  at  once  raising  the  ques- 
tions, "When  was  this  building  erected,  by 
whom,  and  for  what  purpose?"  The  an- 
swer that  his  questions  would  evoke  would 
at  once  be  subjected  to  the  keenest  scru- 
tiny of  his  best  intelligence,  unless  he  was 
ready  to  admit  that  his  open-eyed  wonder 
was  too  primitive  and  dull  to  generate 
thinking  energy.  Anything  that  claims 
antiquity  or  special  authorship  starts  and 
justifies  the  question  of  the  correctness  of 
the  claim,  and  must  furnish  proofs.  A 
document  that  claims  a  certain  date  and 
authorship  thereby  eliminates  every  other, 
and  so  opens  the  door  and  invites  to  dis- 

154 


AMENABLE  TO  CRITICISM 

cussion.  There  is  no  question  whether  a 
man  ought  to  use  his  intelHgence  in  criti- 
cizing, since  he  is  so  made  that  he  must 
do  it,  or  decapitate  his  own  intelHgence. 

All  thoughtful  readers  of  the  Bible  may 
be  classed  as  higher  critics,  for  higher 
criticism  is  simply  the  consideration  of 
these  questions  of  date  and  authorship. 
The  readers  who  find  no  occasion  to  de- 
part from  the  traditional  view  are  as  truly 
higher  critics  as  those  who  reject  that 
view.  Higher  criticism  is  not  a  certain 
result,  but  a  process  that  may  and  does 
lead  to  very  different,  and  sometimes  to 
directly  opposite,  results.  In  some  cases 
the  best  scholarship  finds  for  the  traditional 
view;  in  other  cases  the  findings  are  against 
that  view;  and  this  illustrates  the  peculiar 
difficulties  of  the  field  in  which  these  dis- 
cussions lie. 

We  cannot  seriously  consider  the  books 
of  the  Bible  at  all  -  till  we  have  come  to 
some  conclusions  about  these  fundamental 
questions  of  their  origin  and  authority. 
The  five  books  of  Moses  give  no  hint  of 
who  was  their  author  or  when  they  were 
written,  therefore  the  door  is  left  open  for 

155 


THE  IVIAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

these  questions  to  march  in,  and  they  will 
come  in  with  or  without  our  choice.  The 
book  of  Joshua  and  the  book  of  Judges 
name  no  one  as  author,  nor  do  they  claim 
any  date  as  the  time  of  their  appearing — 
these  are  open  questions.  First  and  Sec- 
ond Samuel,  First  and  Second  Kings,  First 
and  Second  Chronicles,  Ruth,  Job,  and 
many  other  books  lay  no  claims  to  any 
particular  authorship  or  time  of  produc- 
tion. If  there  are  any  unwritten  traditions 
about  these  things,  we  naturally  wish  to 
know  what  they  are  and  on  what  grounds 
they  make  their  appeal  to  our  confidence. 
The  degree  of  interest  we  feel  in  the  con- 
tents of  these  books  will  measure  the 
degree  of  the  interest  we  feel  in  these 
questions. 

This  impulse  of  the  mind  toward  criti- 
cism is  not  specially  manifested  toward  the 
books  of  the  Bible  or  the  institutions  of 
religion,  though  because  of  their  import- 
ance it  may  attract  nioie  attention  here 
than  in  other  fields  of  its  operation.  It 
applies  to  all  the  products  of  human  energy 
and  skill,  to  secular  as  well  as  to  sacred 
literature,  to  art,  to  music,  to  architecture, 

156 


AMENABLE  TO  CRITICISM 

to  war — in  fact,  it  is  as  wide  as  the  creative 
activities  of  the  race.  Those  who  imagine 
that  it  is  something  invented  and  em- 
ployed especially  to  discredit  religion  and 
its  institutions  have  a  very  insufficient  view 
of  the  facts.  The  real  critic,  like  the  real 
scientist,  is  concerned  only  to  know  the 
facts  without  regard  to  what  theories  they 
will  support  or  discredit.  Whether  it  con- 
cerns the  authorship  of  Homer's  Iliad,  the 
Odyssey,  the  Egyptian  Book  of  the  Dead, 
the  sacred  books  of  India,  or  of  the  writ- 
ings of  Shakespeare,  the  object  is  every- 
where the  same  and  the  methods  largely 
the  same. 

The  history  of  biblical  criticism  is  a 
little  vague  in  detail,  but  it  has  been 
sufficiently  pronounced  in  all  the  ages  to 
enable  us  to  trace  it  in  its  various  move- 
ments. Moses  apprehended  the  presence 
and  work  of  critics  when  to  Jehovah,  who 
had  commissioned  him  to  lead  Israel  out 
of  Egypt,  he  made  a  plea  for  instruction  as 
to  how  he  should  answer  these  questions 
that  he  well  knew  they  would  and  must 
ask:  "Who  sent  you?  What  is  his  name.^ 
What  is  your  authority?"     All  the  ages 

157 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

since  similar  questions  have  greeted  every 
religious  teacher,  document,  and  institu- 
tion, and  a  satisfactory  accounting  is  de- 
manded. This  restless  age  has  been  asking 
them  with  renewed  energy,  not  from  a 
captious  spirit,  but  to  gain  full  and  satisfy- 
ing information.  When  men  ask  for  bread 
of  instruction  they  will  not  be  put  off  with 
a  stone  of  dogmatism  or  assumed  ecclesias- 
tical authority.  The  last  centuries  of  He- 
brew history  and  every  age  of  Christian 
history  have  furnished  a  certain  amount  of 
critical  output,  but  the  nineteenth  century 
has  witnessed  a  revival  of  interest,  thor- 
oughness, scientific  method,  and  careful  col- 
lection and  consideration  of  facts  that  make 
it  seem  like  a  new  science.  It  has  indeed 
taken  on  a  new  intensity  of  life,  breadth 
of  purpose,  and  fullness  of  equipment. 

Modern  scholarship  is  very  exacting  in 
demanding  adequate  credentials  on  which 
to  rest  its  faith.  If  a  document,  sacred  or 
secular,  claims  a  certain  authorship;  if  in- 
stitutions, religious  or  civil,  claim  antiquity 
of  origin,  modern  scholarship  will  carefully 
examine  the  facts,  test  the  witnesses  as  to 
their  competency,  sincerity,  and  disinter- 

158 


AMENABLE  TO  CRITICISM 

estedness,  and  will  come  to  its  conclusions 
only  after  patient  and  careful  consideration 
of  all  the  facts.  Light  and  frivolous  minds 
with  poor  equipment  rv..Nii  to  joiiclusions 
and  proclaim  from  the  housetops  immature 
deductions  that  have  never  been  tested  and 
proven  by  the  deeper  religious  conscious- 
ness of  the  great  body  of  believers.  The 
best  scholarship  is  reverent  and  hesitant  to 
move  into  new  field;^  and  will  advance  only 
as  compelled  by  the  facts.  Only  the  half- 
instructed  or  the  overtrained  specialist  is 
willing  to  rush  before  the  public  with 
propositions  that  have  not  passed  the  sol- 
emn test  of  the  Christian  consciousness  of 
the  age.  The  best  minds  are  cautious  and 
considerate  of  the  dangers  involved  in  dis- 
turbing common  beliefs  in  the  field  of 
religion,  and  they  proceed  with  great  care 
and  deference  to  established  beliefs. 

Yet  modern  scholarship  must  be  first 
and  always  loyal  to  fact,  and  it  must  be 
perfectly  free  in  that  loyalty,  or  its  investi- 
gations will  have  no  value.  Whether  the 
facts  are  for  or  against  our  cherished  be- 
liefs, they  must  stand,  and  the  loyal  in- 
vestigator must  stand  with  them  and  for 

159 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

them.  An  investigation  undertaken  with 
the  result  at  which  it  must  arrive  deter- 
mined beforehand  is  worthless,  for  the  con- 
clusion was  reached  before  the  evidence 
was  heard.  Hostility  to  a  document  or  in- 
stitution can  easily  find  arguments  against 
it;  the  moral  magnet  has  great  power  to 
sway  the  needle  of  the  mind.  An  investi- 
gation undertaken  with  a  mental  bias  is 
pretty  sure  to  find  for  the  bias.  If  one 
starts  out  with  a  fixed  disbelief  in  the 
supernatural,  if  he  rules  that  out  as  un- 
scientific and  unthinkable,  he  is  utterly 
disqualified  as  a  critic  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, for  he  has  already  decided  the 
fundamental  point  on  which  the  whole  dis- 
cussion turns.  He  must  exclude  miracles, 
predictive  prophecy,  virgin  birth,  resurrec- 
tion, inspiration,  and  everything  essential 
to  the  life  and  being  of  Christianity.  We 
do  not  say  that  he  must  believe  these 
things,  but  that  he  must  admit  and  feel 
that  they  are  possible,  else  his  conclusion 
is  reached  before  he  begins  his  investiga- 
tion, and  therefore  it  is  worthless.  This 
narrows  the  field  of  competent  critics,  but 
it  is  necessary  for  the  integrity  of  the  in- 

160 


AMENABLE  TO  CRITICISM 

tellectual  process.  The  specialist,  doctrin- 
naire,  or  special  pleader  cannot  be  admitted 
here.  The  mind  must  be  open  as  the  day 
for  the  light  to  stream  in  from  the  east, 
from  the  zenith,  or  from  the  west. 


161 


CHAPTER  XII 
THE  LIMITATIONS  OF  CRITICISM 

It  is  important  to  bear  in  mind  that 
while  criticism  is  a  legitimate  exercise  of 
the  intelligence  to  which  the  natural  forces 
of  the  mind  impel  us,  it  is  surrounded  with 
certain  limitations  that  bound  the  field  of 
its  action  and  affect  the  value  of  its  deduc- 
tions. It  is  not  an  exact  science,  and  its 
achievements  must  be  sifted  and  carefully 
weighed  to  ascertain  their  true  value. 

Much  of  the  literary  criticism  of  the  Old 
Testament  is  vague,  indeterminate,  and  un- 
satisfying. The  canons  of  literary  criticism 
are  suflSciently  accurate  and  reliable  in 
themselves,  for  they  are  the  product  of  care- 
ful, scholarly  thinking.  But  their  applica- 
tion to  an  individual  case,  as  to  the  Bible,  is 
subject  to  the  infelicities  of  a  possible  faulty 
diagnosis.  The  remedy  is  good  where  the 
conditions  for  which  it  is  appropriate  exist; 
where  such  conditions  do  not  exist  it  may 
prove  deadly  poison.  When  one  comes  to 
sit  in  judgment  he  may  be  influenced  by 

162 


THE   LIMITATIONS  OF  CRITICISM 

prepossessions,  prejudice,  partial  knowl- 
edge, eagerness  for  some  worthy  intellectual 
achievement,  or  want  of  a  broad  outlook, 
and  so  produce  work  that  will  be  of  little 
value. 

The  critical  theorv  about  the  names  of 
Deity  in  use  in  the  Pentateuch  by  which 
the  books,  chapters,  and  even  verses  are 
split  up  and  divided  among  a  number  of 
supposed  authors  has  been  rather  roughlj^ 
handled  in  the  court  of  reason  and  has  not 
stood  the  test  of  the  best  modern  thinking. 
The  finest  classical  writers  in  Greek  and 
Roman  literature  use  a  great  variety  of 
names  and  qualifying  terms  in  speaking  of 
their  deities,  of  Zeus,  Jupiter,  Venus,  and 
others,  yet  no  one  ever  thought  of  splitting 
up  their  literature  into  shreds  and  parceling 
it  out  among  a  great  number  of  authors 
according  to  their  mythological  terminol- 
ogy. In  the  New  Testament  and  early 
Christian  writings,  for  variety  of  expres- 
sion, literary  enrichment,  to  express  par- 
ticular shades  of  thought,  the  writers  used 
a  great  variety  of  names,  qualifying  terms, 
and  combinations  of  w^ords  to  express  their 
thought  of  Deity,  as  ''Jehovah,"  "God," 

163 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

"Lord,"  "God  and  Father,"  "Lord  God 
Almighty,"  and  many  other  terms.  In 
speaking  of  Christ  the  same  freedom  and 
variety  in  the  use  of  terms  appears.  He  is 
called  "Jesus,"  "Jesus  Christ,"  "The  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,"  "Son  of  God,"  "Son  of 
man,"  "Son  of  the  Father,"  "Lamb  of 
God,"  "Alpha  and  Omega,"  "The  Bright 
and  Morning  Star";  and  a  great  number 
of  other  titles  indicate  the  variety  of 
thought  with  which  the  sacred  writers  ex- 
pressed themselves  concerning  the  Divine 
Being.  It  would  be  just  as  scientific  and 
reasonable  to  divide  up  the  writings  of 
Saint  Paul  or  Saint  John  among  a  number 
of  supposed  unknown  authors  as  to  take 
such  liberties  with  the  Pentateuch  as  some 
critics  have. 

It  is  pedantic  and  wholly  without  suflS- 
cient  reason  to  attach  so  much  importance 
to  the  use  of  particular  names  of  the 
Divine  Being  in  early  Hebrew  literature, 
especially  as  we  know  so  little  about  the 
meaning,  derivation,  and  use  of  the  names 
employed.  The  name  El  is  the  most 
primitive  and  the  most  widely  distributed 
of  all  the  names  of  Deity    and  it  appears 

164 


THE  LIMITATIONS  OF  CRITICISM 

in  manj^  combinations,  as  well  as  singly, 
in  all  the  Hebrew  writings.  It  was  used  in 
Babylonian,  Aramaean,  Phoenician,  Hebrew, 
and  Arabic;  it  belongs  to  primitive  Semitic 
speech  before  it  became  modified  into  dia- 
lects, but  of  its  origin,  derivation,  and 
meaning  nothing  is  known.  Following  this 
apparently  in  the  order  of  time  and  of 
development  wao  the  name  "Elohim."  It 
is  also  a  general  name  among  the  nations 
for  Deity,  applied  in  Hebrew  literature  to 
the  true  God,  but  without  any  definite 
meaning  that  is  known  to  us.  Then  came 
the  name  * 'Jehovah,"  which  also  seems  to 
have  been  a  very  ancient  name  for  Deity, 
to  which  special  meaning  and  preference 
were  given  in  the  interview  with  Moses  at 
the  burning  bush.  We  do  not  know  its 
derivation  or  meaning,  nor  do  we  know 
its  true  pronunciation,  for  the  vowel  point- 
ings that  determine  the  pronunciation  were 
not  employed  till  the  sixteenth  century  of 
our  era.  Knowing  so  little  about  these 
names,  as  we  do,  all  of  which  seem  to  have 
been  used  promiscuously  among  the  na- 
tions, it  seems  an  absurd  and  unscholarly 
thing  to  attempt  to  break  up  the  Penta- 

165 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

teuch  into  fragments  and  trace  them  to 
their  original  sources  by  the  particular 
name  of  Deity  which  they  use. 

Neither  is  there  any  warrant  in  reason 
or  in  the  known  habits  of  writers  for  the 
arbitrary  breaking  up  of  a  single  book  into 
a  number  of  parts  and  distributing  them 
among  different  authors  on  the  ground  of 
apparent  differences  in  l  tyle.  It  is  not 
according  to  the  known  facts  of  literary 
composition  that  an  author  always  main- 
tains the  same,  or  even  a  similar  style.  In 
all  literatures  the  best  writers  are  like  the 
birds  in  their  flight,  sometimes  high  and 
sometimes  low,  sometimes  slow  and  some- 
times swift,  sometimes  straightforward  and 
sometimes  circular  in  their  movements, 
sometimes  long  upon  the  same  course  and 
again  often  doubling  upon  their  track,  but 
always  the  same  bird.  A  writer  of  real 
ability  will  use  different  styles  according  to 
the  subject  he  is  treating,  whether  it  be 
grave  or  gay,  scientific  or  historical,  philo- 
sophical or  poetical,  devotional  or  doc- 
trinal. The  style  must  be  suited  to  the 
subject  and  may  be  largely  affected  by  the 
mood  the  author  is  in  at  the  time  of  writ- 

166 


THE  LIMITATIONS  OF  CRITICISM 

ing.  An  author  may  write  at  one  time  in 
a  style  very  different  from  what  he  has 
used  at  another  time  when  there  is  no 
apparent  reason  for  it.  A  writer  may  hold 
a  production  long  under  consideration  and 
after  years  of  thought  introduce  new  mat- 
ter in  a  style  quite  unlike  some  other  parts 
of  the  same  writing.  Goethe  was  forty 
years  finishing  Faust,  and  a  recent  Ger- 
man scholar  says  he  can  analyze  that  great 
production  and  distribute  its  parts  among 
different  authors  on  the  ground  of  differ- 
ence in  style  after  the  manner  of  the  higher 
critics.  Every  competent  thinker  who  is 
acquainted  with  the  det-ails  of  literary 
composition  must  see  the  fatal  narrowness, 
insufficiency,  and  unreliability  of  much  of 
this  literary  criticism  of  the  Bible. 

Even  the  uneducated  must  see  that  the 
presumptuous  critic  is  outclassed,  left  be- 
hind, and  hopelessly  befogged  by  his  own 
incompetency  for  his  task  when  he  comes 
to  taking  such  liberties  with  the  greatest 
literature.  A  writer  may  be  moved  by  a 
great  sense  of  moral  responsibility,  he  may 
be  fully  persuaded  that  God  is  putting 
thoughts  into  his  mind  to  be  expressed  by 

167 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

him,  he  may  fall  into  a  judicial  mood  for 
historic  accuracy  and  fairness;  again  his 
mind  may  burn  and  flash  with  poetic  fires, 
then  fountains  of  emotion  may  fling  their 
spray  into  the  air,  or  deep  resentment  and 
fierce  passion  may  break  forth  in  lightning 
flashes  and  thunder  peals  that  will  shake 
the  earth,  or  he  may  breathe  out  a  spirit  of 
love  that  would  cement  into  one  great 
brotherhood  all  the  families  of  the  earth. 
The  critic  approaches  a  piece  of  work  like 
this,  the  output  of  a  great  mind  led  through 
a  variety  of  moods  and  experiences  in  the 
course  of  its  preparation.  He  sits  down  to 
his  work  cool  and  impassive  as  becomes  a 
critic.  He  finds  a  strange  medley  before 
him,  thoughts  and  forms  of  expression  that 
do  not  harmonize,  that  jar  one  upon  the 
other,  that  are  clearly  the  product  of  dif- 
ferent mental  states,  and  as  he  concludes, 
therefore,  of  different  minds.  Things  are 
viewed  from  different  standpoints,  with 
feelings,  moods,  and  tempers  very  unlike, 
therefore  he  concludes  there  must  have 
been  different  persons  engaged  in  the  com- 
position. He  takes  up  his  thin  blade  of 
literary  criticism — it  is  sometimes  very  thin 

168 


THE  LIMITATIONS  OF  CRITICISM 

— and  he  easily  inserts  it  between  the 
various  parts,  and  lo!  the  structure  falls 
at  once  into  as  many  parts  as  the  operator 
listeth. 

This  kind  of  literary  criticism  is  not 
limited  to  the  Bible.  The  great  poem  of 
the  incomparable  Greek  bard,  the  father  of 
poetry,  blind  Homer,  has  been  the  prey  of 
these  rash  critics  that  are  now  trying  to 
tear  the  Bible  into  fragments.  The  im- 
mortal Iliad  has  been  broken  into  a  hun- 
dred fragments  and  the  pieces  handed 
around  to  different  authors  in  all  the  cities 
of  Greece  who  are  supposed  to  have  fur- 
nished them  to  some  master  mind  who 
welded  them  into  one  great  masterpiece 
of  poetic  beauty.  For  two  thousand  years 
the  critics  have  been  fighting  again  the 
old  Homeric  battles,  flinging  their  clouds 
of  dust  and  smoke  into  the  air  till  one  can 
only  guess  where  the  real  facts  are,  with 
this  difference,  however,  that  there  is  a 
copious  shedding  of  cold  ink  instead  of  hbt 
blood.  The  world  still  holds  to  its  faith  in 
the  unity  of  the  authorship  of  the  Iliad  in 
the  brain  of  the  grand  old  bard  whose 
name  it  bears. 

169 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

We  are  all  familiar  with  the  efiPorts  of 
the  literary  critics  to  deny  the  great  mas- 
ter of  English  literature,  William  Shake- 
speare, the  authorship  of  the  works  at- 
tributed to  him.  The  ease  with  which  a 
skillful  critic  can  use  any  literature,  as  the 
critics  have  used  biblical  literature,  is  illus- 
trated in  this  attempt  to  show  that  Lord 
Bacon  was  the  real  author  of  the  works  of 
William  Shakespeare.  The  plausible  na- 
ture of  the  argument  in  this  case  should 
be  a  sufficient  indication  of  the  danger  of 
error  in  attempting  to  decide  such  grave 
matters  by  such  an  insufficient  method.  A 
strong  argument  has  been  made  to  show 
that  Thomas  Paine,  and  not  Thomas  Jef- 
ferson, was  the  real  author  of  the  declara- 
tion of  American  independence.  And  now 
Professor  Mueller,  of  Germany,  in  a  recent 
book  declares  that  he  can  do  with  Goethe's 
Faust  just  what  the  Old  Testament  critics 
have  been  attempting  with  its  writings. 
There  is  no  literature  that  may  not  be 
treated  in  the  same  way,  and  this  fact  is 
sufficient  to  discredit  and  eliminate  the 
method  as  a  conclusive  authority.  It  may 
be  highly   suggestive  and   stimulating  to 

170 


THE  LIMITATIONS  OF  CRITICISM 

thought,  but  as  a  guide  and  teacher  it  is 
untrustworthy.  The  method  is  inadequate 
to  the  task  it  undertakes,  and  therefore  its 
issue  is  unreliable.  Insufficiency  of  method 
is,  therefore,  a  serious  limitation  on  the 
literary  criticism  of  the  Bible. 

A  second  limitation  on  criticism  in  gen- 
eral is  that  its  results  are  inconclusive. 
This  is  for  the  sufficient  reason  that  we 
are  never  sure  that  the  facts  are  all  in,  and 
the  facts  that  seem  well  assured  to-day 
may  be  overturned  to-morrow  by  some 
new  discovery.  The  spade  is  in  the  ground 
and  the  mind  waits  on  the  spade;  facts 
spring  out  of  the  earth,  as  plants  do,  and 
bear  fruit  for  the  feeding  of  the  nations. 
The  field  of  discovery  has  only  been 
touched  by  the  enterprise  of  modern 
scholars,  and  vast  treasures  lie  buried  in 
the  ruins  of  ancient  cities  to  be  brought 
forth  at  some  future  time  for  our  instruc- 
tion. Anyone  who  has  wandered  over  the 
sands  of  Gizeh  and  Sakkara,  along  the 
Nile,  or  over  the  earth-covered  ruins  in 
Palestine,  will  be  convinced  that  we  are 
not  yet  ready  for  a  final  judgment  on 
many  of  these  questions  of  criticism.    Sir 

171 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

William  M.  Ramsay  recently  said:  "Tell 
them  to  have  no  fears  for  the  future  of  the 
Bible.  The  spade  is  at  work,  and  as  it 
digs,  it  reveals,  more  and  more,  records 
that  confirm  the  biblical  narratives." 

The  critics  of  to-day  are  laughing  at 
those  of  ten  years  ago,  and  those  of  the 
next  generation  will  probably  look  back 
with  much  sympathy  for  their  poor,  de- 
luded brethren  of  the  present.  Within  the 
memory  of  this  generation  learned  men 
were  teaching  that  Moses  could  not  have 
wi'itten  the  books  ascribed  to  him,  for  the 
sufficient  reason  that  the  art  of  writing 
was  then  unknown.  The  argument  seemed 
conclusive  till  the  tablets  of  Tel-el-Amarna 
in  Egypt  were  discovered;  then  there  was 
much  hurrying  to  and  fro  among  the 
learned  faculties  to  get  into  line  with 
established  facts  and  to  save  as  much  of 
the  old  baggage  as  possible.  Poor  Bel- 
shazzar  was  beaten  and  cuffed  by  these 
merciless  critics  till  it  was  a  real  comfort  to 
believe  that,  after  all,  he  never  had  any 
real  existence;  but  suddenly  he  rises  out  of 
obscurity,  marches  into  the  field  and  deals 
these  critics  a  blow  that  satisfies  all  his 

172 


THE  LIMITATIONS  OF  CRITICISM 

claims  against  them.  As  for  the  mythical 
Sargon,  nothing  but  laughter  and  ridicule 
was  a  sufficient  expression  of  learned  ab- 
horrence of  such  ignorance  and  credulity  as 
dared  to  name  him — just  who  is  laughing 
now  everybody  knows.  And  these  doughty 
old  Hittites,  so  hard  to  subdue  while  living, 
but  relegated  to  the  realms  of  myth  by 
the  critics,  have  come  marching  back  onto 
the  field  with  flying  banners  and  have  put 
to  flight  the  last  man  that  dared  to  ques- 
tion the  records  concerning  them.  In  so 
many  things  the  conclusions  of  the  higher 
critics  have  been  proven  worthless  that  the 
wisest  of  them  are  becoming  quite  modest 
in  their  assumptions,  and  one  must  look  to 
the  half-educated  and  the  immature  for 
dogmatism  on  the  subject.  This  is  saying 
nothing  against  the  validity  or  value  of 
the  study  or  of  the  method,  but  it  does 
suggest  a  necessary  limit  that  commends 
the  wisdom  of  holding  conclusions  in  a 
tentative  way.  To-morrow's  shovelful  of 
earth  or  pickax  stroke  may  shatter  the 
conclusions  held  for  a  thousand  years. 

Another  limitation  is  upon  the  use  to  be 
made  of  the  results  of  criticism.     A  due 

173 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

sense  of  the  uncertainty  of  the  conclusions 
arrived  at  ought  to  make  one  modest  about 
proclaiming  them,  and  the  possible  injury 
to  others  who  cannot  accept  these  con- 
clusions without  injury  to  their  faith  should 
lead  to  great  caution  in  announcing  them. 
Poisons  may  be  so  administered  by  a  wise 
physician  as  to  be  curative,  but  he  is  liable 
to  arrest  as  a  murderer  who  distributes 
them  indiscriminately  without  proper  label. 
The  supreme  end  in  teaching  is  health  of 
soul,  spiritual  growth  and  development, 
and  everything  must  be  subordinated  to 
that  end.  In  the  great  school  of  learned 
Hebrew  critics  that  flourished  from  the 
eighth  century  before  Christ,  this  duty  of 
reticence  about  the  results  of  their  study 
before  the  common  people  was  a  cardinal 
principle,  according  to  Professor  Duff's  re- 
cent history  of  Old  Testament  criticism. 

It  is  of  the  nature  of  malfeasance  in 
office  for  one  to  accept  the  teaching  func- 
tion in  pulpit,  press,  or  school  and  use  the 
position  to  teach  doctrines  contrary  to 
those  of  the  church  employing  him.  It  is 
fallacious  to  plead  the  rights  of  scholarship 
and  free  speech.    These  rights  were  in  full 

174 


THE  LIMITATIONS  OF  CRITICISM 

force  and  recognition  when  the  engagement 
was  entered  into  and  when  the  agreement 
was  made  to  serve  the  church  and  teach 
its  doctrines;  that  agreement  voluntarily 
Hmits  and  sets  bounds  to  these  rights.  To 
depart  from  such  an  engagement  and  con- 
tinue receiving  the  salary  paid  for  main- 
taining it  is  ethically  unthinkable  in  a 
man  laying  claim  to  intellectual  and  moral 
integrity.  It  is  sophistical,  if  not  worse, 
to  plead  the  rights  of  free  speech  in  de- 
fense of  unfaithfulness  to  the  function  or 
engagement  of  a  teacher.  To  make  such 
use  of  one's  knowledge  as  to  confuse,  dis- 
turb, or  injure  the  ignorant  or  the  young 
and  immature  is  such  an  abuse  of  the 
sacred  office  of  teacher  as  to  justify  sum- 
mary expulsion  from  it.  One  of  the  first 
considerations  with  a  sincere  teacher  in 
pulpit,  press,  or  school  must  always  be 
how  to  impart  knowledge  so  that  it  will 
be  correctly  understood,  and  so  that  it  will 
minister  to  growth  of  faith  and  strength  of 
character. 

The  Pauline  principle  is  the  only  sane 
and  safe  one  for  teachers,  and  it  does  not 
require  divine  inspiration  or  apostolic  moral 

175 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

elevation  to  see  its  justness.  In  writing  to 
the  Corinthians  the  great  apostle  said:  *T 
have  fed  you  with  milk,  and  not  with  meat; 
for  hitherto  ye  were  not  able  to  bear  it, 
neither  yet  now  are  ye  able  to  bear  it." 
This  is  the  true  principle  of  adaptation  of 
teaching  to  the  mental  and  moral  condi- 
tion of  those  to  be  taught,  involving  the 
holding  back  on  the  part  of  the  teacher  of 
much  that  he  knew  but  which  those  under 
his  instruction  were  not  yet  prepared  to 
receive.  A  teacher  of  mathematics  who 
should  attempt  to  teach  the  Calculus  to 
children  in  the  grammar  school  would  be 
thought  to  be  mentally  unbalanced,  or  so 
deficient  in  ideas  of  method  as  to  unfit 
him  for  his  work.  It  is  hardly  possible  to 
conceive  of  a  more  reprehensible  character 
than  that  of  a  religious  teacher  who  vaunts 
himself,  and  feeds  his  vanity  with  the  ap- 
plause he  receives  from  the  ignorant  masses 
for  great  learning,  while  destroying  the  very 
principle  of  faith  by  injecting  doubts  about 
things  that  had  been  accepted  as  matters 
of  divine  revelation. 

Insistence  upon  this  caution  in  teaching 
as  a  necessary  limitation  upon  the  student 

176 


THE  LIMITATIONS  OF  CRITICISM 

of  criticism  docs  not  place  any  restraint  on 
the  prosecution  of  such  studies,  but,  rather, 
upon  their  abuse.  In  the  pulpits,  press, 
and  schools  of  the  church  immense  damage 
has  been  done  by  the  reckless  and  indis- 
criminate use  made  of  the  tentative  results 
of  critical  studies,  and  none  see  more  clearly 
the  unwisdom  of  such  a  course  than  the 
great  masters  of  these  studies. 

If  limited  to  their  proper  field,  these 
studies  do  not  touch  the  vital  and  essential 
contents  of  a  book;  they  deal  only  with  the 
question  of  authorship,  date,  and  circum- 
stances of  origin.  If  men  have  changed  or 
shifted  the  names  and  dates  in  God's  book, 
that  cannot  change  its  eternal  truth;  its 
spiritual  light  will  shine  on  just  the  same, 
for  the  foundation  of  God's  truth  stands 
forever  sure.  Inspiration  is  a  living,  per- 
petual thing,  and  the  most  criticism  can 
do  is  to  shift  the  scenes  of  the  great  drama 
that  is  forever  bringing  light  and  truth 
to  the  minds  of  men.  It  remains  true 
now  as  when  first  spoken,  "My  sheep 
know  my  voice."  The  devout  soul  quickly 
detects  the  notes  of  divine  inspiration  by 
a   spiritual    sense   that    distinguishes   the 

177 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

quality  of  the  tones  that  fall  upon  the 
ear. 

Critical  studies  are  often  objected  to  be- 
cause of  their  supposed  findings,  but  a 
more  valid  objection  is  their  comparative 
inutility  and  the  habit  of  doubting  and 
questioning  which  they  cultivate.  The 
habit  of  rationalizing  on  all  things  is  un- 
favorable to,  if  not  positively  disabling  for 
constructive  or  creative  effort.  It  proposes 
the  study  of  what  has  been  done,  rather 
than  creative  or  constructive  doing;  and  it 
is  even  concerned  more  with  the  machin- 
ery of  what  has  been  done  than  with  the 
substance  of  the  doing.  It  is  objectionable 
as  a  mental  attitude  and  form  of  effort. 

In  the  development  of  normal  intel- 
lectual life  there  are  three  distinct  stages 
or  forms  of  activity.  First,  the  ideal,  in 
which  the  mind  is  reaching  after  truth, 
convictions,  principles,  and  visions  for  its 
own  interior  well-being  and  to  fit  it  for 
worthy  action.  Second,  the  productive 
stage,  when  the  mind  pours  forth  speech, 
song,  artistic  creations,  poetry,  philosophy, 
patriotism,  religion,  or  any  form  of  seK- 
expression  to  which  taste  or  talent  may 

178 


THE  LIMITATIONS  OF  CRITICISM 

lead.  Then  follows  the  administrative  form 
of  effort,  when  the  mind  seeks  to  organize 
and  operate  the  truths  and  principles  ac- 
cepted; governments  are  formed,  policies 
adopted,  agencies  and  instruments  em- 
ployed, and  great  causes  are  pushed  for- 
ward with  a  strong  hand.  Thus  far  the 
action  of  the  mind  has  been  normal  and 
healthy,  working  toward  the  achievement 
of  worthy  ends.  But  another  form  of  in- 
tellectual activity  may  arise,  not  in  logical 
sequence  or  further  development,  but  as 
an  unproductive  return  upon  these  pro- 
cesses of  development  for  the  critical  study 
of  the  exterior  formal  facts  concerning 
them.  The  constructive'  and  productive 
gives  place  to  the  critical,  and  no  one  can 
doubt  the  effects  of  that  change  of  mental 
attitude.  This  form  of  activity  is  logically 
subsequent  to  the  others  and  structurally 
incompatible  with  them.  I  do  not  say  it 
is  hostile  to  them,  but  by  the  limitations 
of  the  human  mind,  its  inability  to  carry 
on  many  lines  of  effort  at  the  same  time, 
the  one  naturally  excludes  the  other.  As 
matter  of  fact,  few  minds  are  broad  enough 
to  be  productive  and  critical  at  the  same 

179 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

time.  The  dramatic  critic  is  never  the 
great  actor.  The  mihtary  critic  is  never 
the  winner  of  battles.  The  art  critic  is 
never  the  master  painter  or  sculptor.  The 
literary  critic  is  never  the  poet  or  literary 
artist.  The  biblical  critic  is  seldom  the 
great  preacher  or  evangelist.  The  pro- 
ductive and  the  critical  attitude  are  so 
different  that  both  'do  not  exist  in  the 
same  mind  without  mutual  loss  and  dis- 
ablement unless  you  have  a  mind  of 
unusual  endowments.  This  question  of 
mental  attitude  is  fundamental  in  this,  as 
in  other  realms  of  thought  and  action. 
WTiat  will  you  do?  Will  you  carry  the 
building  up  story  by  story,  filling  the 
rooms  with  things  usefid  and  ornamental 
till  it  stands  a  completed  palace  of  utility 
and  beauty.'^  Or  will  you  occupy  yourself 
in  digging  down  to  inspect  the  founda- 
tions, inquiring  who  the  first  architect  and 
builder  were,  and  whether  there  may  not 
be  some  confusion  about  their  names  and 
the  date  of  their  beginnings.'^  You  may 
do  one  or  the  other;  you  will  not  do  both. 
This  is  the  limitation  of  critical  studies 
which  I  am  pointing  out,  a  limitation  on 

180 


THE  LIMITATIONS  OF  CRITICISM 

intellectual  productivity  and  efficiency;  not 
upon  intellectual  ability,  but  upon  that 
employment  of  it  that  renders  greatest 
credit  to  the  student  and  largest  benefits 
to  others.  It  is  practically  impossible  for 
the  mind  to  be  intent  upon  productive 
work  for  the  moral  and  spiritual  regenera- 
tion of  men,  or  for  the  administrative  ad- 
vancement of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  in 
the  earth,  and  at  the  same  time  do  thorough 
and  reliable  work  in  criticism;  the  two 
mental  states  do  not  exist  at  the  same 
time  in  the  ordinary  human  mind.  One 
may  keep  himself  thoroughly  informed 
about  the  progress  of  critical  thought  with- 
out taking  the  critical  attitude  or  becom- 
ing dogmatic  about  it. 

If  one  looks  at  the  world  from  the 
humanitarian  standpoint  only,  how  little 
time  or  disposition  will  he  find  left  for 
critical  studies!  How  can  he  sit  down  to 
study  an  old  foundation  with  a  hungry 
child  tugging  at  his  sleeve,  asking  for  some- 
thing to  eat.^  With  the  world's  vast, 
blistering,  killing  curse  of  intemperance 
spreading  ever  wider  its  "valley  of  dry 
bones,"  '^ith  its  illiteracy  forever  jabbering 

181 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

in  his  ears,  with  childhood  and  womanhood, 
wronged  and  corrupted  in  all  the  earth, 
still  lifting  up  their  wail,  and  with  the 
poor  old  world  reeling  on  like  a  drunken 
man  it  knows  not  whither,  how  can  any 
normal  man  devote  himself  to  critical  stud- 
ies or  feel  an  absorbing  interest  in  them, 
unless  he  is  set  apart  to  such  scholastic 
pursuits?  The  man  who  in  a  railway 
wreck  would  turn  aside  to  study  the 
mechanical  structure  of  the  steam  engine, 
a  very  useful  study,  while  wounded  men 
and  women  were  calling  for  help,  would  be 
considered  a  monster  of  callous  feeling,  de- 
ficient in  all  the  nobler  and  better  qualities 
of  human  nature.  The  work  of  saving  and 
reconstructing  humanity  has  not  yet  ad- 
vanced far  enough  to  justify  calling  off 
any  considerable  contingent  of  our  forces 
to  study  critically  the  men  and  measures 
employed  at  its  inception.  The  humani- 
tarian appeal  continues  to  be  bewildering 
in  its  vastness  and  force,  and  there  is  only 
one  thinkable  response  for  men  of  the 
better  nature  to  make,  and  that  is  in  the 
direction  of  immediate  and  continuous  re- 
hef.     Think  of  Martin  Luther,  John  Wes- 

182 


THE  LIMITATIONS  OF  CRITICISM 

ley,  John  Howard,  Lord  Shaftesbury,  or 
Florence  Nightingale  turning  a  deaf  ear  to 
the  cry  of  the  world  to  devote  themselves 
to  critical  studies!  That  would  have  been 
another  fall  of  angels  almost  as  mysterious 
and  disconcerting  as  the  first,  though  it  is 
granted  that  they  did  do  some  creditable 
critical  work.  It  is  one  of  the  criticisms 
made  upon  the  highly  educated  and  intel- 
lectual Germans,  that  they  neglected  the 
vital  and  saving  elements  of  Bible-teaching, 
and  employed  their  great  abilities  in  criti- 
cal studies  instead  of  pressing  home  upon 
the  people  those  spiritual  truths  of  the 
Word  of  God  that  would  have  made  them 
the  most  spiritual  as  well  as  the  best  edu- 
cated people  in  the  world.  It  is  a  question 
of  which  shall  predominate,  which  shall 
occupy  our  strength,  moral  and  spiritual 
ends  or  critical  studies?  Any  competent 
thinker  can  see  that  the  moral  and  spiritual 
presents  an  infinitely  better  field  for  the 
development  and  display  of  real  intellectual 
power,  while  the  practical  results  are  in- 
comparably greater.  While  the  call  of  the 
world  remains  what  it  now  is,  the  most 
gifted  and  noble  natures  will  continue  to 

183 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

respond  as  they  have  in  the  past.  Absolute 
abandonment  to  the  work  of  setting  the 
world  right  may  admit  of  a  sideplay  of 
the  intellect  in  the  pursuit  of  critical 
studies,  but  they  never  can  acquire  great 
prominence  in  the  thought  or  life  of  such 
a  man.  We  thus  find  a  moral  limitation, 
not  a  prohibition  of  the  studies  we  are 
considering. 

If  we  look  at  the  subject  from  the  stand- 
point of  theology,  a  correlated  subject,  we 
discover  another  limitation  to  critical  stud- 
ies. We  do  not  say  a  prohibition,  but  a 
limitation,  a  natural  barrier.  Theology, 
because  of  the  dignity  of  the  subject,  the 
greatness  of  the  themes,  and  the  intel- 
lectual ability  required  in  dealing  with 
them,  is  "the  queen  of  the  sciences,"  the 
greatest  of  them  all.  The  creation  and 
production  of  theological  thought  is  the 
highest  exercise  of  the  human  intellect,  the 
most  taxing,  absorbing,  and  capable  of 
raising  the  mind  to  the  highest  enthusiasm 
and  concentration  of  creative  energy.  The 
theological  thinker  is  the  embodiment  of 
creative  and  constructive  energy — a  state 
of  mind  directly  opposite  to  that  occupied 

184 


THE  LIMITATIONS  OF  CRITICISM 

by  the  critic,  who  reviews,  estimates,  and 
construes  what  others  have  produced. 

It  is  important  here  to  observe  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  theological  thinker 
and  the  theological  scholar.  The  theologi- 
cal scholar  is  supposed  to  have  a  com- 
prehensive knowledge  of  what  other  men 
have  thought  and  taught  in  the  realm  of 
theology,  and  of  the  material  which  they 
brought  to  their  support,  while  he  may 
not  in  any  true  sense  be  a  producer  of 
theological  thought.  Such  a  mind,  occu- 
pied with  reviewing  and  estimating  the 
productions  of  other  minds,  may  find 
nothing  in  critical  studies  incongruous  with 
its  ordinary  studies  or  habits  of  thought. 
They  do  not  lie  in  the  same  field,  but  they 
face  the  same  way  tow^ard  religious  life  and 
literature,  and  their  movement  in  the  field 
of  discussion  is  similar.  The  theological 
thinker  glows,  flames,  and  soars  through 
vast  fields  of  thought  with  an  exhilaration 
and  uplift  of  soul  that  renders  him  im- 
patient with  the  dry  details  of  critical 
studies,  and  ill  disposed  toward  them.  The 
theologian  has  not  a  very  high  opinion  of 
the  critic's  w^ork,  nor  is  the  critic  over- 

185 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

burdened  with  admiration  for  theological 
thinking.  They  feel  with  reference  to  each 
other's  achievements  about  as  mathema- 
ticians and  poets  do  toward  each  other: 
their  realms  are  so  unlike  one  cannot  ap- 
preciate the  other.  The  mind  will  not  be 
theological  and  critical  at  the  same  time. 
Theology  opens  the  greatest  of  all  fields  to 
the  mind  of  man,  and  whatever  impinges 
upon  it  must  give  way. 

Another  limitation  to  the  work  of  the 
critic  appears  when  we  come  to  consider 
the  great  practical  features  of  religious 
truth.  The  exercise  and  development  of 
faith  requires  as  much  thought  and  care, 
and  intellectual  activity  of  as  high  an 
order,  as  critical  studies  require,  though  of 
a  different  kind,  and  it  has  been  known  to 
produce  much  more  beneficent  and  lasting 
fruit.  The  faith  life  is  not  the  blind,  ir- 
rational thing,  the  creature  of  impulse, 
emotion,  and  reckless  thinking,  which  many 
seem  to  think  it  to  be.  It  is  closely  logical 
and  methodical  in  its  procedure,  and  truly 
courageous  in  its  action,  for  when  it  has 
posited  an  omnipotent  Helper  it  is  thor- 
oughly rational  to  trust  for  anything,  and 

186 


THE  LIMITATIONS  OF  CRITICISM 

there  is  warrant  for  undaunted  courage  in 
any  situation.  It  is  not  walking  by  feel- 
ing, impulse,  or  vision,  but  on  the  beaten 
highway  of  irrefutable  logic.  It  rears 
structures,  projects  campaigns,  wins  vic- 
tories, and  claims  kingdoms,  giving  little 
thought  to  origins  and  dates  when  once 
convinced  that  "the  foundation  of  God 
standeth  sure."  It  has  been  the  con- 
quering and  creative  force  of  Christian 
history,  not  questioning  how  or  why,  but 
going  on  with  confidence  and  courage  to 
do  the  Lord's  will  as  led  by  him.  It  does 
not  rest  in  technicalities,  but  in  the  living 
verities  of  God's  manifestation  to  men. 

Love  is  also  one  of  those  qualities  of  the 
Spirit  that  mounts,  and  soars,  and  sings, 
and  serves,  and  overcomes  out  of  the  vital 
energies  of  its  own  nature  drawn  from  the 
hidden  sources  of  life,  forever  renewing  and 
pluming  itself  with  a  sublime  indifference 
to  all  the  questions  that  occupy  the  critics. 
The  great  fountain  of  life  lies  open  and  is 
forever  flowing,  and  true  souls  receive  di- 
rectly from  it  the  satisfying  elements  of 
the  better  life;  and  if  it  must  sometimes 
flow  through  artificially  constructed  pipes 

187 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

of  divine-human  revelation,  the  water  is  so 
refreshing  and  satisfying  that  there  is  Httle 
disposition  to  quibble  about  the  piping. 
What  concord  can  a  love-filled  soul,  sing- 
ing its  glad  song  of  praise  to  the  great  God 
whom  it  knows,  have  with  a  carping,  pes- 
simistic critic  who  has  lost  his  way  groping 
through  realms  of  darkness  where  there  is 
no  well  assured  path?  It  does  not  need  to 
have  origins  accounted  for;  it  derives  life 
directly  from  God,  with  whom  it  is  in  a 
holy  alliance  forever,  and  its  one  business 
is  to  glorify  the  Maker  of  all  and  to  lift  up 
and  save  men  by  the  forces  of  truth  and 
grace  that  are  now  coming  into  the  world. 
This  is  a  realm  of  life  above  and  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  critic,  on  which  his  shadow 
never  falls;  and  if  he  sometimes  sneers  at 
it,  he  knows  that  it  looks  down  on  him 
with  pity.  The  eagle,  as  it  soars  away  to- 
ward the  sun,  is  perfectly  willing  for  the 
hop-toad  to  boast  itself  in  its  power  of 
leaping  if  it  can  find  comfort  in  that. 
This  I  say  in  all  seriousness,  for  the  hop- 
toad is  as  legitimate  as  the  eagle,  and  his 
pride  of  leaping  is  as  rational  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  eagle  as  the  self-vaunting  of 

188 


THE  LIMITATIONS  OF  CRITICISM 

the  critic  over  his  achievements  in  the 
presence  of  that  great,  shining  company  of 
conquering  souls  who  are  making  the  king- 
dom of  God  come  bv  their  heroic  toil  and 
overcoming  faith.  \Vlio  can  define  or  ex- 
pound that  soul -hunger  that  went  abroad 
seeking  to  save  men  in  the  great  revival 
periods  of  the  church's  history?  It  was 
w^holly  apart  from  and  inconsistent  with 
the  critical  spirit  that  seems  more  anxious 
to  interpret  than  to  repeat  the  conquering 
epochs  of  Christian  history.  The  critical 
spirit  never  did,  nor  can  it  do,  these 
"mighty  works"  of  the  kingdom  of  God, 
by  which  men  are  regenerated  and  savage 
tribes  transformed  into  civilized  nations. 
The  fervors  of  worship,  the  evangelizing 
impulse,  and  the  missionary  spirit  naturally 
flow  from  love  and  occupy'  all  the  energies. 
The  greatness  of  the  subjective  benefits  of 
such  a  life  in  growth  of  intellect  and  per- 
sonal power  justifies  the  concentration  of 
all  the  powers  on  it,  and  the  beneficent 
effects  of  it  upon  others  demand  it  of  us 
as  an  imperative  duty.  The  love-life  and 
service  will  require  more  effort,  inde- 
pendent thinking,  heroism,  and  strength 

189 


THE  MAKING  OF  THE  BIBLE 

of  character,  but  for  this  reason  and 
others  its  returns  in  the  higher  reahns  of 
life  are  richer  than  all  that  critical  studies 
can  give.  It  is  an  easy  life  to  sit  down  and 
criticize  the  works  of  others;  it  is  a  heroic 
life  to  fight  battles,  effect  changes,  and 
found  institutions  that  will  affect  com- 
ing generations.  Criticism  presupposes 
achievements,  lives  by  those  that  are  not 
its  own,  and  requires  not  the  active  but 
the  reflective  attitude. 

The  thought  I  have  endeavored  to  ex- 
press in  this  chapter  is  that  the  professional 
scholar  is  bound  by  his  calling  to  pursue 
critical  studies  to  their  limit,  and  that  the 
intelligent  pastor  and  Christian  worker 
must  keep  himself  informed  as  to  the 
results  of  the  best  scholarly  investigation, 
but  the  preacher  or  the  productive  or  con- 
structive thinker  who  turns  aside  to  do  the 
scholar's  work,  or  who  gives  voice  to  hasty 
conclusions  or  undemonstrated  prop- 
ositions of  critics,  is  disabling  himself  and 
putting  his  best  work  in  peril.  If  these 
"limitations"  seem  like  the  prohibition  of 
criticism  itself,  they  are  not  so  in  fact. 
The  full  circle  of  truth  on  any  subject  will 

190 


THE  LIMITATIONS  OF  CRITICISM 

have  two  segments  looking  in  opposite  di- 
rections, the  one  seeming  to  contradict  tlie 
other,  as  is  the  case  with  "free  will"  in  man 
and  "divine  sovereignty"  in  God,  each  of 
which  at  first  thought  seems  to  exclude 
the  other.  Think  far  enough  to  complete 
the  circle  of  truth,  and  the  different  parts 
will  be  found  consistent  with  each  other. 


191 


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The  making  of  the  Bible. 


Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00037  7772 


